Pink Mist
by SteelyGlint
Summary: Sometimes one's history holds too much pain. It haunts you, and dictates every action and thought. Anna Summers has suffered more than anyone and has chosen to express herself through questionable methods. Elsa, not entirely together herself, is the first and last person in any position to save Anna from her past, and must do so while battling her own growing emotions.(w/self-harm)
1. Prologue

**Pink Mist: Prologue**

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_The pain simply will not stop; there is nothing to abate this burning, this itching, the insatiable desire to end everything. Only in the brief instant of the blade sliding across the skin does the pain vanish, for one instance all worries and concerns fall into the void. Only for the pain to resurface, crawling its way out of the unfathomable pit of oblivion, as it scales the black walls of the abyss it eventually reaches the heart and sinks its fangs into the beating muscle. For another instant this new pain eclipses all others, and the peace returns, but all things must come to an end, as a potent poison floods the system, leaving the body as a shivering and shuddering mess, incapable of perceiving the world around it._

_But as this process is repeated over, and over, and over again. Something is missing; a gaping hole is left in the being, unable to fill the void alone. This missing piece is breed from the desire to be heard, to be saved from this pain. The being demands attention, to validate its existence, but the psyche has other ideas. At the absolute lowest the consciousness convinces itself that is undeserving of being saved, that the effort of being saved is not worth the peace it would provide. The mind convinces the soul that it is past the point of no return, that if it truly does catch the eye of anyone willing to save them, that they would only bring down such a kind soul to hell with them. _

_Thus the two conflicting emotions brew into a storm within the being, both fighting for dominance. One striving to be heard and in turn saved from the pain, and the other forcing the pain and suffering deep into the inner recesses of the soul, far from the light of day, to lay concealed and fester until the force keeping it at bay is no longer strong enough to hold it down. Should the either one win or lose, the being may be forced to make a decision that decides the fate of the being. The decision to either lay bare himself or herself and beg for help, or chose to end their own suffering, permanently. Depending on the circumstances either choice may yield any result._

_For any being enduring this storm, this war of emotions, they may choose to give physical form to this war, or keep it hidden within them. Should they choose to keep the storm within, then they often don a mask to help them function in society. However, no mask is perfect, those skilled at perception will notice the fake smiles, the false excuses, and their dead eyes. The on goings of the world around them effects the battle that rages within, should the mask be shattered then the desire to end their suffering will most likely be amplified to the point of action. Should they choose to express themselves, they risk discovery, and discovery can sometimes help to alleviate the pain, or worsen it. Both choices carry with them heavy consequences, and as such there are those who fluctuate between these two states of action and inaction to help keep the monsters at bay._

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**This work is now complete. I'll be uploading them at my own pace from here on out, but know that the wait will not be terrible because all of the chapters have already been written.**


	2. Chapter 0

**Pink Mist: Chapter 0**

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Elsa Winter is a college student at Arendelle University, currently pursuing her desire to graduate from the Elite School of Business, a prestigious graduate program that prepares a select few exemplary students to become future world leaders. Elsa is currently at the top of her small class, and is being referred to as the Ice Queen. This name is partly due to her position at the top of the graduate program as well as due to her personality. Elsa is by no stretch of the imagination shy, or timid. Rather she has been described as one who is defiantly self-sufficient. Often times in this rigorous program, students are required to work together to solve the problems presented to them, yet Elsa refuses to get close to anyone, instead choosing to complete the work by herself. The instructors can hardly complain, due to the fact that Elsa has yet to make a single mistake on any exam or evaluation. Thus the graduate program, students and instructors alike have come to terms with Elsa's behavior and have chosen to give her what she wants, isolation.

However, Elsa's personality when she is among friends changes dramatically. She opens up, shows emotion, and lets go of her stand-off-ish façade from the program. Among her friend she is still referred to as the Ice Queen, but for an entirely different reason. One thing that Elsa and her friends all have in common is a shared passion, dancing. Elsa, together with her friends often go to clubs that feature DJ's that will play for any group that wants to dance at the forefront of the club. Often times these outings become miniature competitions between two or more gangs that fight through dance. While Dancing, Elsa becomes the Ice Queen once more; her face is stoic and emotionless while she dances, hence "Ice" in her nick-name. Yet her dance is the epitome of grace and fluidity, each step she takes is beauty incarnate, hence why she is referred to as the "Queen" of dancing. These two personas that are exemplified on the dance floor has earned her the title of Ice Queen and has caused her to gain quite a bit of popularity and reputation at the local clubs, yet no one makes the connection between the Dancing Ice Queen, and the emotionless Ice Queen of the Elite Business Program. This separation is one that Elsa is grateful for because it allows her to carry on her perfectly divided life in peace.

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Anna Summers is a gifted individual who is blinded to her own potential by her dark history. She is currently an Art and Music major at Arendelle University. She received a full scholarship to attend this University, which she believes it is due to her financial status, or rather her lack of a financial status considering that she has not a single penny to her name, and the pity of a kind older woman.

Anna is struggling through life, trying to hide from her past. Her parents had never planned on becoming parents to a child of their own, and hence were ill prepared to raise their unexpected daughter. They had far too little knowledge on how to be proper caretakers, and were forced to hire a babysitter to do the job they were meant to do as the parents of their daughter. However, soon their financial situation caught up to them and they were forced into a corner by debt. Left with no other options these parents abandoned Anna at the fragile age of 4 and sold her to their loan sharks in exchange for half of their debt being wiped clean.

Anna spent 3 years with the loan sharks who treated her like an animal; they kept her locked in a storage room of an abandoned warehouse. This room had no windows, only one door and one fluorescent lamp. Every couple of days one of them would bring the girl measly portions of fast food from down the street. The young girl was forced to make a fraction of a full meal last several days, resulting in her body becoming sickly thin and gaunt. In addition to bringing the borderline starved girl food, one of the men got into the habit of torturing the young girl. It started off as a way to keep her quiet so no one found her, but it eventually became a sick and cruel ritual that escalated in severity as time went on, each time introducing a new torture device to maim the child. This hell continued for 3 years, with the girl's entire world revolving around the men that chose to grace her with their presence once every couple of days.

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It took the police 3 full years to find the missing girl named Anna, after her parents abandoned their daughter, her old babysitter reported to the police about the poor living conditions that Anna's parents were providing to their daughter. Upon investigation the police could find no trace of Anna or her parents. It took them 2 years to track down her parents; they had fled to Las Vegas. As it turns out these two poor excuses for parents had taken up gambling to pay off their debt and eventually found themselves with twice the amount of debt they had before they sold their own flesh and blood daughter. By the time the police found Anna's parents they were both dead on the bathroom floor of their hotel room, they had both chosen to overdose on cheep drugs to escape from their debt. Never once had the thought of their daughter pass through their minds in their last moments, for to them that girl was nothing more than a mistake.

The Police were distraught when they found the parents both dead, but even more so when they realized that their daughter Anna was no where to be found. Not only was the now 6-year-old girl not found in the hotel room, but also there was no evidence that she ever had been. Puzzled, the police retraced their steps, back to Anna's hometown, only to find a lead that they had previously overlooked, a neighbor claimed to have seen Mr. and Mrs. Summers sending their daughter off with men that the neighbor had never seen before. Thus resulting in the police restarting their investigation.

It would take the police another year until they found the loan sharks that had taken Anna from her parents. The police found the 7-year-old Anna, starved, abused, beaten, and light deprived in a cold storage room in an abandoned warehouse. The one florescent lamp that hung in the room blew out years ago and was never replaced. The inside of the door was littered with scratch marks and dried blood stains, clearly the result of the small girl clawing at the door until her hands bleed.

The small, fragile girl was naught but a husk of a child. She was placed in a hospital until she returned to good physical health, then she was placed in a rehabilitation center, in the hopes that the special care would help her return to normal, for all the physical damage that was done to her, none was worse than the psychological damage she suffered. From that day that the police found her, until her 18th birthday, Anna did not utter a single word.

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Anna struggled to find the will to live in this world. A world that she was never intended to be born into. Anna's struggle continued for years, left with so many unresolved emotions, Anna turned to music to express herself, composing great pieces that depicted her sorrow, her rage, her longing to find where she belongs.

Anna was by far the youngest tenet at the rehab facility, and as a result the caretakers had very little experience taking care of such a young girl. This inexperience combined with the girl complete silence nurtured a vast distance to grow between Anna and the faculty staff, hence Anna grew up with not a single close person with whom to socialize with, even if she couldn't speak.

One fateful day the Dean of the Art and Music Graduate Program at Arendelle University was visiting a distant relative that was also in the rehab center. As the woman passed by Anna's room, she heard music unbefitting of such a brightly colored and open facility, upon closer inspection she realized that the music was coming from the tiny accessory speaker that was plugged into a small redheaded girl's laptop. The music spoke to the woman, it spun a tale of fleeting joy followed by crushing sorrow and fear, then the tone and key shifted into an eerie passage that made her feel numb. Shortly after words, the music became a jumble of melodies and harmonies that did not seem to fit together yet somehow worked to convey a sense of confusion or that the composer lost her way. Soon the music stabilized into a serene yet sad piece that steadily grew softer and softer, only to be brought back with the emergence of a defiant solo instrument playing angrily at the world, but soon the sorrowful melody would claim it too. This pattern repeated until all was claimed by the depressing melody and the speaker grew silent once more.

The woman, who had listened to the piece in its entirety found herself silently crying in the hallway, a nurse came up to her to comfort her, about what the orderly did not know. Instead of answering to the nurse, the woman inquired about the young redhead.

"Who is that young girl in there?"

"Well, according to her file her name is Anna Summers."

"What do you mean, 'according to her file'?"

"That poor girl has gone through more pain and suffering than anyone ever should, as a result she hasn't talked since she arrived."

"How old is she? And when did she arrive here?"

"According to her file she is 17, and she arrived here when she was 7 years old."

The woman gasped, _10 years without talking? That poor child … what happened to her?_

"What happened to her?"

The nurse hesitated, "I'm sorry it's not really my place to say…"

The woman gazed back at the young girl who was sitting upright on her bed in her dark room, the redhead turned away from her to turn on the lamp, when the light hit her hands the woman gasped in horror, startling both the girl and the nurse, littering the skin on the younger girl's hands were innumerable scars that crisscrossed all across her skin, some larger ones traced up her arms to her shoulders, clearly due to her raising her arms to shield her body from damage, from what the woman did not know. Seeing the scarring and the fragile girl's state of being renewed her motivation to find out about the girl.

The woman pleaded with the nurse, practically begging for the young girl's story, but the nurse held firm.

"I'm sorry Mrs. …"

"Baker."

"Mrs. Baker, I'm sorry but the only one's allowed to look at a patient's file are staff or legal guardians."

Forced to concede to the rule of the establishment, Mrs. Baker nodded. She certainly was not staff, nor did she have the time to become a legal guardian and new parent for the younger girl, plus what with her almost being 18 her guardianship over the girl would only last one year. Facing defeat against the situation, inspiration struck her.

"What about benefactors?"

"'Benefactors'? I'm not sure what you mean Ma'am …"

"That girl has extraordinary talent in music, I would like to sponsor her and help pay for her attendance to Arendelle University's School of Art and Music."

"Well, she never went to high school, or any school for that matter … she has no social skills, thrusting her into college may not be the best idea …"

"She has all the social skills she needs, have you heard her music? I have never met anyone capable of imbuing music with such raw emotion and intent before. Her music will be her voice."

"I suppose … but soon enough she will be 18, and then its up to her."

"When is her birthday?"

"No one knows it's not in the file either. We just bump up her age sometime in August. We've tried holding a birthday party for her, but she never seems interested."

"I see, is it alright if I come back to visit her on the first of August? I want to give her a little surprise for her birthday, and I'll see if she is interested in attending college."

"That's sounds fine, let me just run it by the head nurse first."

"Please."

* * *

"Anna, my name is Gerda Baker, I work in a place filled with people your age who all love music. They let their music speak for them and they are defined, as people, by what they compose. I would like for you to join them and seek out a future painted in your own music."

Gerda stared at the young girl with pleading eyes. No response.

"Anna, your 18 now, you are legally your own person, you cannot stay here forever. You will eventually have to go back into the world. I would simply like to give you the opportunity to finds a career in the world, one that you love. But Anna, I need to hear you say it, I need to hear you say that you want to go …"

The redhead was trembling now, the words _'go back'_ struck a terrifying cord in her heart, giving her flashbacks to that accursed darkness that haunts her. She would be willing to do anything to never return to that room, and hence she squeaked out a tiny affirmation, "_yes."_

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"Hey Elsa! Have you heard the rumors going around town lately?" Olaf called out to the Ice Queen.

"No, what rumors?"

"Apparently there's this masked man showing up to clubs. He dances like no one has ever seen before, and at the end he always ends his performance by throwing what looks like red wine on the floor … kinda like his declaration of war."

"'Red wine'?"

"Yeah or just water with red food coloring, his mask is also red, and all his clothes too. Everyone is starting to call him Crimson."

"Crimson eh? When is the next gig, I want to see this so called 'dancer'."

"That's the thing, he shows up randomly, but always at least once per month …"

Olaf, just stared at her with a lopsided grin plastered across his face.

"Has he been to one this month yet?"

"Nope!"

"Then what are we waiting for? Lets go see this fabled 'Crimson'."

Elsa got up from the chair she was resting in and began heading for the door, her good friend Olaf just behind her. They had been practicing their dance routines in one of the studios in the Art and Music Building on campus, the Dean was open anf friendly to anyone who had an interest in the arts, even if they were not a part of her program, as such they had unlimited access to the studio, provided people from the program were not in need of the space. On their way out that ran into the rest of their group that was filing in for their usual practice: Kristoff, Suilvia, Eugene, Rapunzel, and the trio – consisting of Meg, Mulan, and Jane. Without a word, Elsa signals to the van and the gang followed suit, all climbing in and heading out.

Kristoff broke the silence first. "Are we going out? Already? I don't think I know the routine well enough to be doing it at a club Elsa."

"Relax, we are just going out to the club to check out this rumor that Olaf told me about. Apparently someone is steeling our spotlight at the local clubs, on summer break no less. We are only gonna see if he's there and see if he is as good as the rumor say he is."

The music in the club thumped along in rhythm, the DJ putting his own spin on the generic club music files he was working with, the result was something new and unique, yet familiar with everyone enough that they could feel the music resonate.

The center of the dance floor was clear, save for the small group of locals who often showed up to clubs to show offer their skills in the art of dance, Elsa and her friends were off to the side of the club, at the bar, but were elevated above the rest of the club, giving them the perfect view of the dance floor. They had been here for an hour, and the mysterious man had yet to show up. Patience growing thin, Elsa slammed her drink on the bar top and payed for herself and her friends.

"I'm sick of waiting, lets get out of here."

As Elsa began making her way towards the door, which was on the opposite side of the club, the lights went dark, and the music stuttered out of the speakers. Suddenly a completely new and foreign beat began pounding through the sound system; the DJ was frantically fiddling with the equipment to get it to go back to normal. That was until the music kicked in, the crowd roared with delight, and the DJ decided to let it play out and fix the problem later, se he simply stood by the speaker and let who ever hacked his equipment to finish their business and move on.

Suddenly, there was a bang, and something began to tumble from the rafters in the tall ceiling, a strange red sphere hurtled towards the ground, those beneath it quickly cleared out of the way of the falling object, effectively clearing the dance floor. A lone figure dashed out from the crowd and stood right in the path of the falling sphere. The figure was donned in clothes of the purest red, and wore and mask of equal color. The clothes were baggy, and hung loosely on the stranger's figure, who was also surprisingly short, shorter than most people in the club. The stranger raised their left hand, the fingers clasped into a fist, and allowed for the sphere to slam into the raised arm. The sphere ruptured, spraying forth a brilliant cascade of water all over both the figure and the floor around him.

The lone, drenched figure stood stock still in the center of the club. Until the music kicked off, and as if the music itself had possessed his body, the figure began to move and twist with the music.

Elsa, who was at the inner ring of the surrounding crowd, could only stare intently on the figure as it twisted and moved across the floor in perfect alignment with the music. She was lost in the stranger's rhythmic movements until Olaf poked her shoulder to grab her attention.

"I thought something was off, but his way of dancing is all wrong."

"What do you mean? He's good, and I mean he's really good."

"Yeah, he's good but his technique is all wrong. Look, whenever he falls to the ground and does a spin or shifts his weight over the ground he's doing it wrong. You and I both know that if your going to do anything on the floor its best to plant you entire palm on the ground to give yourself as much frictional traction as possible, or to place all you weight on your finger tips, to spread out the friction over several surfaces, but he ain't doin' that. He's planting his fist on the ground, his bare knuckles mind you, and spinning on the skin covering his hand, the friction between the floor and the skin on his fist is easily enough to rip his hand to shreds after a couple revolutions, but he keeps doing it."

True enough to his words the stranger truly had been using his fist to pivot on the ground, causing the skin on his left hand to shred off the bone. As the Music approached the close, the stranger executed a high velocity-several revolution spin on the floor, all the while pivoting on his left fist, the resulting weight and friction was too much for the skin to withstand.

In the last few beats of the song, the stranger sprang to his feet and whipped his hand around himself, spattering the still wet floor with another liquid, dyed a deep crimson red, that diluted the surrounding water painting the entire dance floor a rosy pink hue. Before anyone could move, the red figure vaulted across the club and out of the door before anyone could blink. Cheers and applause erupted throughout the club, but with the star of the show already long gone, many people opted to stand there awkwardly trying to process what just happened.

Elsa bent down at the waters edge, and ran her hand through the pink water. She brought her now soaked hand up to her face to smell the liquid, trying to identify what the red liquid was. She immediately identified the smell of iron and shook the offending liquid from her hand. Shocked by the realization, Elsa began to shake ever so slightly. This amazing stranger, who was the best dancer she had ever seen, had just splattered the dance floor with his own blood.

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**End of Chapter 0**


	3. Chapter 1

**Alright, so i kinda sorta forgot to write one of these for the first one i uploaded, _Chapter 0_, so here i am writing this one. For those of you who don't know, which i am assuming there _might_ be a max of 2 or 3 people who _do_ know, I only start posting chapters once the entire work is completed. So, as of right now _Pink Mist_ is completely written and I am now starting to upload the chapters. For any questions or comments or anything else you would like to say please feel free to review or send me a PM.**

**Someone made a review that I feel that I should address. For those of you who remember this work before i took it down, I ask that you be patient. While most of the content for the earlier chapters has remained the same, some small things have been changed. I will be uploading all of the chapters gradually to allow those who did not read this work before i removed it a chance the read as a reasonable pace.**

**Also, FF is really giving me trouble. As in, I am unable to upload any chapters anymore. If anyone knows of another site like this one where i could upload this work without so much trouble, it would be greatly appreciated.**

**I have nothing else to report at this time. Therefore, enjoy**

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**Pink Mist - Chapter 1**

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"Mrs. Baker-" A quickly, yet stern glance from the old woman in the driver seat silenced the young girl in an instant. She flinched as she remembered the old woman's request that they address each other by their first names.

"… Gerda … are you sure its okay to have someone like me admitted into the Art and Music Graduate Program? I mean … I'm still a freshmen …" Gerda released a patient sigh. This was the third time that Anna had brought up this topic.

"Anna, you are the most talented young woman I have ever met, you are going to blow everyone else out of the water with your music and talent … but if you're not up for it … you could go back to-"

"NO!" Anna nearly lunged out of her passenger side seat, startling Gerda immensely, and causing her to veer off into the other lane for oncoming traffic, luckily they were alone on the road and did not meet a tragic end via collision.

Anna released a trembling breath as she struggled to calm herself down. She knew Gerda didn't mean it the way that she heard it. Nearly any mention of 'going back' caused the horrors of her past to resurface in her mind, often compelling her to over react to well meaning intentions.

"I mean … no … if you think I am good enough to attend then I will." Anna's gaze returned to her lap, where she played with the new gloves she had received from Gerda.

The skin colored gloves were provided to her at her own request, for they covered her scars and gave her a sense of security away from the scrutiny of those around her.

Gerda, who regretted how she worded her response, could only glance at the young trembling girl with sorrowful eyes.

She did not know what Anna had lived through, she decided to not look at her file when she was granted access to it, instead she decided to wait until Anna trusted her enough to share her past.

Although Gerda was technically not Anna's guardian, she did consider herself responsible for taking care of the younger girl and hence had proposed that Anna live with her in her home, which was just a convenient 10 minutes from campus, and another 15 minutes from the major city of Arendelle, which coincidentally shared the same name as the college.

Gerda felt a sense of pride welling up in her chest. Here she was, driving to her modest sized home with a new addition to her family. Irrespective of the fact that this new addition is a small, fragile and broken girl who has had no one to love her in more than a decade.

Gerda swore to herself that she would do her best by Anna, and give her the love and support that she so sorely deserves. Gerda remembers the unconditional love and support that her own parents gave to her to seek out a career in music, and she was determined to do the same for Anna.

"Anna, your music is truly captivating … _that one_ piece aside, all of the music you make is amazing." Gerda realized too late what she just insinuated.

"Not that _that _piece is bad or anything … I just realize how much you've invested yourself in that piece! So I understand if you don't want to share it with your classmates …" Gerda was desperate the change the topic. She had brought up an ugly topic that never ended well when broached.

Inspiration struck her when she saw Anna fiddle with the zipper on the backpack that rested on the floor by her feet.

"Why don't you pull out your laptop and play that new piece you have been working on for the past few days?" Anna's head snapped to Gerda in surprise. The sudden topic change disoriented her for a moment.

After a few moments to process Gerda's request, she nodded and reached down between her knees to her backpack and pulled out her laptop, flipping it up and pulling out a cord. She plugged one end to the computer and the other to the USB port on the high-end radio Gerda had in her car.

After a few clicks, Anna's gloved finger hovered over the space bar before looking at Gerda. The old woman gave the shy girl an incredibly warm smile full of compassion and encouragement. Anna pressed down and the music began to flow from the car's speakers.

The piece started out as timid as its composer, testing the waters with small subtle passages from varying instruments. The tension of the piece grew and grew. Discord and dissonance becoming more prevalent as the volume increased until it felt as if the very speakers would collapse from the weight of the emotions hidden behind the music.

Suddenly the tension broke, giving way to elated, joyous, and uplifting chords. As if the sun broke over a small village that had known nothing but rain and thunder, the timid and shy veil dissipated, springing forth a torrent of beautiful and joyous melodies accompanied by equally bright harmonies. The entire piece radiated a combination of relief and joy, even if it did start off low and timid.

Yet all the while, the music was restrained, never getting any louder or bolder, as if the composer was hesitant to make her emotions known, like she was trying to hide this overwhelming joy she felt. The timid feeling had all but disappeared, but after a few bars of the joyous melodies the restrain returned, albeit in a lesser form. The composer was clearly happy about the new development that had cleared away the fear, but lingering doubt had returned and put a damper on her uplifting music.

Gerda could understand anything Anna was feeling by simply listening to her music, a skill that did not rest within Gerda's expertise, but in Anna's alone.

Much to Anna's surprise, Gerda spoke up when the music faded from the speakers.

"You have nothing to be worried about. You are going to do great, I promise. I will always be here for you, and I will never abandon you. I may not know what happened to you in the past, but it does not matter to me. From now on we are family, and family takes care of each other, and looks out for each other … forever."

Anna immediately blushed. She ducked her head down to the laptop and furiously began working on the piece she just played. After a short while she hit save and looked back at Gerda who was smiling patiently at Anna, when she noticed Anna's gaze she nodded once more and Anna played the piece again.

The same piece sprung forth from the speakers in the car. It was the same piece, but as the timid harmony once again emerged from the background and threatened to swallow the happy and pleasant melody a booming passage from the ever valiant and majestic French Horns cut through the veil of hesitation and carried with it the rest of the orchestra into a serene and boldly, content movement of bright tones and uplifting melodies and harmonies. Long gone were the dark tones and hesitant accompaniment, replaced by an overwhelming sense of happiness and appreciation.

The sheer amount of joyous emotions that Anna's corrected piece carried with it, threatened to flood Gerda's eyes with tears. The old woman promptly pulled over to the side of the road, undid her seat belt and pulled the confused girl into a crushing hug. Squeezing tighter as her heart clenched for the young girl wrapped in her arms.

The old woman pulled away to wipe the tears from her eyes and grasped the poor young girls gloved hands and arms in her own, holding them with all the love and affection in the world.

"Anna, you never have to be alone again. If you want, I would like to make you my legal daughter. I would like to make you an official and legal part of my family. Would you be alright with that?"

The old woman's sudden movements had initially frightened Anna, thinking she did something wrong. She closed her eyes and prepared herself for another beating she was sure was coming, but when she felt the overwhelming warmth of the old woman's embrace she was left dazed and confused. All she could do was stare at the old woman as tears flowed down her wrinkled face; it took a few moments for Gerda's words to sink in and for Anna's brain to make sense of what was being said.

When they did, the young girl gasped in disbelief, but one look at the determined eyes of the old woman before her told her that there was nothing to doubt. Deeply moved by the offer, Anna's own face quickly became stained with tears of joy, and she desperately grasped for the old woman, to feel the warmth and love of her hug once more.

In between of gasps and tears Anna managed to squeak out, "Yes … yes!"

* * *

Anna stood stock still, frozen in fear. She stood at the forefront of a large auditorium filled to the brim with students; a select few were her age, with the vast majority being a few years older than her.

She was frozen, staring at her laptop, which was open in front of her; it was plugged into the sound system installed in the room.

Anna desperately tried to hide behind her computer, but was unable to do so without looking embarrassingly weird.

In a futile effort to distract herself she began pulling at the long gloves that she was wearing, ensuring that they properly reached to her mid fore arm and made sure that the sleeves of her shirt overlapped with the gloves, the scars on her skin were not something she was comfortable with people seeing. Seeing an 18-year-old girl's arms covered in innumerable scars prompted questions, and questions dug up the past, which was something Anna desperately wanted to keep hidden for the rest of eternity.

Anna was on the verge of fainting when a warm hand landed on her shoulder, quickly snapping towards the source of the contact Anna relaxed slightly. Standing right next to her, donning a warm an encouraging smile was Gerda. Anna glanced back at the computer and hovered the mouse over two music files, unsure which she should play, she had composed two pieces for her debut presentation, but now in the face of this overwhelming crowd she was second guessing her debut pieces. Noticing the young girls apprehension, Gerda leaned over and whispered into the frightened girls ear.

"_Why don't you play that piece that you played for me in the car the day of your move in?"_

Anna gasped at the old woman's suggestion before vehemently shaking her head in the denial, before falling still as a blush crept onto her face.

With a head lowered in embarrassment she turned back to the computer before scrolling down the folder to the piece that Gerda had recommended she play. Anna took one last glance at Gerda who was simply smiling and nodding her head in affirmation, encouraging her to play the piece.

Without ever looking back at the computer, Anna double clicked the mouse, selecting the file and the music began to flood the auditorium, what was left of the idle chatter that had sprung up around the room in the wake of Anna's hesitance quickly died down as the music began to play.

* * *

The ensuing silence that followed the conclusion of her piece threatened to give Anna a heart attack, she was one bad noise from sprinting from the room and running all the way to her and Gerda's home.

The 'boo-ing' never came, the audience was left speechless, until one soul braved the silence and began vehemently cheering; soon enough the entire auditorium was excitably clapping and cheering.

But Anna, being the ever pessimist, simply chalked up their behavior as some sort of act to make her not feel so bad about her obvious lack in musical skill or talent. They were taking pity on her and being overly kind to make her feel welcomed, despite her terrible debut piece.

She silently thanked the crowd for not mocking her lack of ability by bowing slightly and claimed her seat in the front row, which was nearly complete empty save for a few students at the very ends. Anna felt that this seat was best, because it was closest to Gerda, and none of the hundreds of people in the room were in her field of view.

* * *

After class, Anna was swarmed with people, all asking her name, her favorite composer, where she was from, what program she uses to compose her music on her laptop, as well as a million other questions that she had no hope of hearing, let alone answering.

In the face of overwhelming stimulus, the like of which she has never in her life experience her brain shut down, instinct kicked in, and she sat there in silence until a loud, piercing voice cut through the crowd.

"Back off! Back off! Give the girl some space! She obviously doesn't do well with crowds! You're all scaring her!" The owner of the voice pushed her way to the inner circle of the crowd and began pushing people away from the shell-shocked redhead.

"She is obviously a freshmen and is a little new around here, you can all ask her your questions when she has had some time to get adjusted. Now back off!"

None of the students wanted to wind up the yelling woman, in fear that they get in trouble with the upper classmen that they all knew she associated with. The crowd quickly dispersed, leaving Anna and the still fuming brunette alone.

Gerda was a short ways away and was about to intervene on behalf of her protective mother-like instincts that threatened to take over. She stopped herself when she noticed the spry brunette striding towards the crowd. Now, she was thankful that she had stopped herself, had she been the one to save Anna, the young redhead may have missed out on the opportunity to make a friend, something the girl desperately needs.

The strange brunette turned her attention back to the redhead.

"Hi, sorry about them, they were all just excited to meet such a young and talented composer such as yourself. I'm Rapunzel by the way, my friends call me Punz or Zel, you can call me that too if you like." Rapunzel extended her hand to shake Anna's.

Anna glanced around, finally noticing that they were alone, she panicked for a split second until she found Gerda a short ways away. It took her a moment and the sound of her savior clearing her throat before she realized that someone had been talking to her.

"I … I'm … My name is Anna Sum-" Anna glanced at Gerda who was smiling affectionately at the younger girl "… Baker, my name is Anna Baker."

The brunette glanced that the younger girl with a questioning gaze when she failed to shake her hand. Instead of calling the timid redhead out on her failure to return her greeting, she simply shrugged before responding.

"Well, its nice to meet you Anna _Baker_..." The brunette glanced around at the Dean and instructor before turning back to Anna, "You have the same last name of the Dean, that can't be just a coincidence."

"Well … um … no … its not … She's … uh … well … I'm uh-" Anna visually fidgeted in her seat, Gerda who was standing by just incase something like this happened immediate stepped forward.

"Anna here is my adopted daughter, we will be finalizing the paperwork this weekend. As such I have requested that Anna refer to herself with the last name of 'Baker' rather than with her old last name, 'Summers'."

"Oh, I see. Well I'm not one to pry into other people's business, but thank you for telling me Mrs. Baker. But that last name, 'Summers' where have I heard it before?"

Anna quickly turned her head away in shame, and Gerda's heart clenched when she realized that she accidentally let slip Anna's old last name.

There had been an article in the news not too long ago about Anna and how the locally well-known Gerda Bakers was paying for her to attend the prestigious Arendelle University. Gerda had little control over what went into the article and as a result the journalist dug up painful memories for Anna in an impromptu interview that he sprung on the poor girl while she was at the grocery store with Gerda.

Fortunately, the reporter was unable to get any solid information out of Anna, and with her file still securely under lock and key he was unable to report on any solid story. However, the clever bastard looked to the public police reports. While usually such reports are free from any information that could be used to identify victims, the reporter took a gamble and linked Anna to a police report about a child that was found in an abandoned warehouse following a three-year investigation on the disappearance of her parents and her, the last name of the parents was released as 'Summers.'

Gerda was aware of the timeline following Anna's admittance to the rehab facility, and as a result she knew that the reporter had made a lucky guess about the police report. Fortunately, the article was not on the front page and ended up on the third page of that day's paper.

Gerda had asked Anna if she wanted to talk about her past with her on the day of the paper's release, but Anna only shook her head no.

Gerda knew she had to act fast, lest the clever brunette connect the dots from the article to her adopted daughter. "You must be thinking of Miss Alison's art project that she presented just the other day, what did she title it? 'The Young Summer's Night'? It was truly beautiful."

"Yeah … that's probably it. Anyways, Anna I was about to go have lunch with my friends in one of the dance studios do you want to come with?"

_Dance?_ Anna's head whipped around back to the brunette, before quickly darting to back to Gerda. "No, sorry, I promised Gerda that I would eat lunch with her today, but maybe some other time?"

"Sure, no problem. Just let me know whenever you're free."

Gerda frowned when Anna turned down Rapunzel's offer, but was none-the-less happy to be able to spend her lunchtime with her soon to be daughter. Not too many of the faculty has the gall to ask the Dean of their department to eat with them; hence Gerda had grown accustomed to eating alone in her office. She was excited to show Anna all of her awards and old pictures that decorated her office.

The old woman did, however, make a vow to start planning meetings during lunchtime so to give herself an excuse and force Anna to hang out with people her age. But for today she would enjoy her lunch with her future-adopted-daughter.

* * *

After class Anna came bouncing up to Gerda as she was putting away her presentation material. "Are we all set for lunch in your office today?"

Gerda frowned, she was somewhat regretting her choice to schedule meetings during lunch break, but she steeled her resolve, convincing herself that Anna needed to make friends.

"Sorry, Anna, I forgot to tell you, I have a big meeting during lunch break so I can't eat with you."

Anna's face fell in disappointment; she had grown accustomed to eating with Gerda over the past week, and truly enjoyed eating with her now legal guardian – she was not comfortable enough to call Gerda her mother just yet, such a term held too many awful memories.

As if on cue, Rapunzel appeared beside Anna.

"Then I guess it the perfect time for you to eat with my friends and I. What do you say? You wanna eat with us?"

Anna looked at Rapunzel, then Gerda, seeking assistance while being wholly unsure of herself. Gerda smiled warmly at her daughter and nodded her head; Anna nodded her head in turn and looked back to Rapunzel.

"Sure … so where are we eating?"

* * *

"Allow me to introduce to you mere mortals to … The Great, The Amazing, The Oh-So-Talented Anna Baker!"

Rapunzel made the hushed crowd cheering noise before she started clapping, which prompted the group to clap while rolling their eyes at Rapunzel's antics. Rapunzel immediately launched off into a round of introductions, pointing to each of the members as she listed off their names.

"Anna this is Kristoff, Silvia, Eugene-"

"Flynn-" interrupted the athletic looking man with a scowl on his face

"-Meg, Mulan, and Jane." Continued Rapunzel, without even missing a beat from the interruption.

Anna has never been particularly good with crowds, and as a result struggled to maintain an even voice. "I-it's n-nice to meet all of you-u."

Rapunzel promptly flopped down in the shade under the tree that the group was sitting in and patted the ground next to her while looking at Anna, the redhead complied and took her seat, pulling out the lunch that Gerda had made for her that morning.

A comfortable silence stretched over the group, until Eugene addressed Anna.

"So Anna, Zel has already told us so~ much about you, but I'd like to ask you about yourself anyways, so what is your major?"

"I'm in the Arts and Music Graduate Program."

"Nice, nice … wait! How old are you?" The confused look on his face betrayed his curiosity.

Anna blushed slightly before mumbling in response, "… 18."

"Wow, did you graduate high school early or something?"

Anna froze, she never went to high school, or any school for that matter. Its only thanks to the private teacher the facility hired to give her homeschooling that she was around the level of a high school graduate. It took her a moment to recall her response that she worked out with Gerda.

"N-not exactly …"

The group waited for her to elaborate, but her silence forced them to yield, they didn't want to out their new guest.

"She also told us that you're a really good composer? What kind of music do you like to make?" Anna's reserved posture eased up at the shifting of topics, her face brightened up and she smiled as she responded.

"I like to make all kinds, I make all my music on my laptop using instrumental simulation programs that allow me to write sheet music for different instruments and it plays them like an actual person would. I then compile all of them together into a piece that includes an entire symphony or orchestra. I have also written works that use more modern instruments, like the ones in modern day tech music, or club music."

Eugene took a bite of food before answering with a "that's cool."

An awkward silence stretched on for a brief moment before Anna remembered the proper social etiquette Gerda helped her with. "What about you all, what are you majors?"

Kristoff was the first to speak up, "I'm here on an athletic's scholarship. I'm the Captain of the football team, and I am majoring in business."

Next was the young woman sitting next to Kristoff, she had light brown hair that extended to her mid back and had brilliant brown eyes, she also carried a goofy smile while looking at Kristoff, "I'm majoring in Transportation Management. Oh and I'm also Kristoff's Girlfriend, so don't get any ideas."

Anna raised her hands in defense and nodded in understanding.

Eugene spoke next, "I'm majoring in Information Technology, and more specifically I'd like to develop the perfect security system one day."

Rapunzel jumped in immediately after him, "I'm an art major, as you probably already know. I specialize in painting."

The last three girls spoke in rapid succession, ordering in: Meg, Mulan, Jane. "Study of Greek history to be a history teacher." "Cultural Development and Preservation." "Study of Endangered and Understudied Species, more specifically those found only in uncharted jungles or on islands."

As the last of them finished their comments, Flynn cleared his throat to grab Anna's attention once more.

"Punz mentioned that something was odd about you last name, but when we asked her about it she said that we'd have to ask you when you came to eat with us."

Anna panicked, were asking about her last name 'Summers'? Or 'Baker'?

Rapunzel, seeing the distress on the face of the younger girl, leaned over and placed her hand on the redheads shoulder, "Its okay, we aren't going to treat you any differently just 'cause your last name is Baker."

Anna released a breath she didn't realize she was holding. She took a moment to collect herself before addressing Flynn's, or Eugene's, original question. For some reason she found herself addressing everyone, rather than just the young man.

"For anyone who does not know, my last name is Baker, just like the last name of the Dean of the Arts and Music Department. The similarity is because last weekend Gerda adopted me as her legal daughter, so now my name is Anna Baker."

"Really? What was your name before she adopted you?"

_Remember Anna, the planned responses you practiced with Gerda._

"It doesn't matter what my last name was before, because from now on I'm a Baker."

The solidity in the statement killed off any lingering curiosity in the group, none of them wanted to press forwards on a topic that the redhead went out of her way to avoid.

Eugene took only a moment to accept Anna's answer before asking another question.

"By the way, it's kind of been bugging me, but I'm worried about offending you by asking … but why are you wearing gloves? With long sleeves? Its like, a million degrees out here."

Like a machine, Anna churned out her predetermined response, "I'm not terrible good with germs or dirt, so the gloves help keep me clean."

Anna replayed the words in her mind before realizing what she was implying.

"I mean … not that any of you are dirty or anything, its just that at a young age I had a bad experience … t-the gloves keep the germs and dirt off m- … I'm sorry, uh-"

Rapunzel rested her hands on the younger girl's gloved ones that were clasped together in her lap, giving them an encouraging squeeze before speaking a hushed, gentle voice.

"Hey … hey, its okay, we know what you meant. If you aren't really good with dirt or whatnot then its fine, we all have something unique to us. When I was growing up I refused to get my hair cut, by the time I was twelve my hair had gotten so long that it was dragging on the floor behind me as I walked."

Silvia spoke up to comfort Anna as well, "Yeah, we all have this quirky thing that makes us, us. I mean, take Kristoff for example-"

"Don't you dare, Silvia-"

"Kristoff has this really weird fetish where he likes to have me to dress up like a reindeer and feed me 'carrots' all the while calling me 'Sven,' which was my old nickname from when we were kids."

Kristoff's face sported a deep red at his girlfriend's confession.

"HEY! Suilvia! What the hell?! Fine, if you're going to be that way … I recall that you like to make reindeer noises all the while, If I didn't know any better I'd say you liked being _my_ reindeer."

A steadfast blush had bloomed across Anna's face as she ducked her head to hide her embarrassment. The banter between the couple only grew in detail as time passed, finally they were silenced when Eugene slapped Kristoff upside the head and pointed at the redhead who was about to faint from the blood rushing to her face.

To diffuse Anna's embarrassment, Eugene changed topics. Instead of talking about Kristoff and Suilvia, he opened up about his own past.

"Back in the day I was a common crook." He then glanced at Rapunzel. "That was, until a blonde devil- … angel saved me. She caught me sneaking into her house to hide from the cops after one of my jobs went south; she imprisoned me until I saw reason. We made a deal, I would stop thieving and she would cut her hair. Since then, for some reason, her hair has been losing it golden sheen and has darkened to the brown you see it as now, while I am an honest law abiding citizen-" Rapunzel shot him a glare, "… most of the time."

Anna's gaze shifted back and forth between Rapunzel and Eugene, their dreamy stares caused something to stir in the depths of her soul. What exactly caused such an odd reaction the redhead had no idea.

As the conversations continued, ranging from common hobbies to love interests, to popular rumors, to funny stories in class. Anna enjoyed her time with Rapunzel's friends, she could almost forget the crushing memories of the past, but she could never escape the fear.

Such consuming fear would resurface every time she blinked, in the brief instance when her eyes closed and she was immersed in utter darkness, memories of all that time spent in perfect blackness surged forth to the forefront of her mind. It was a constant reminder that had no hope of ever going away; after all you can't stop blinking.

Anna was vaguely aware of a distant voice calling out to her, pulling her from the dark recesses of her traumatized mind.

"_Anna ... Anna! …_ ANNA!" Rapunzel's face was contorted in worry when the redhead didn't respond the first time, and her concern only grew as she was forced to raise her voice to catch her attention.

"Hmm? Oh sorry, guess I just spaced out for a bit there." Rapunzel could see that lie before it left Anna's lips, but she didn't call her out on it.

"Are you sure your okay?"

"Yeah, I sometimes just get lost in thought."

"Okay, well like I was saying, its too bad that you weren't able to meet Elsa, she is the last of our group and apparently she had to stay after class to talk to one of her professors. But all of us were going to meet tonight for our usual '_practice.'_ If you want to join us then meet me here by this tree at 4:00 PM."

Rapunzel's cryptic words piqued Anna's interest.

"What kind of practice is it?" a coy smile broke out across Rapunzel's face.

"If you want to know you have to come."

Anna thought about it for a moment. From what Gerda had told her earlier, her guardian had meetings for the majority of the rest of the day, and considering that Anna couldn't get home unless Gerda drover her back, she had a couple hours at the end of the day to burn. So she gave Rapunzel and nod, and began walking to her next class.

Before she left earshot, a voice called out to her, it was Rapunzel.

"Oh! And Anna? Bring you computer!"

"Okay!" The redhead waved once more before setting off for class.

* * *

"I don't know Punz, Do you really think that Elsa's going to like her?"

"Are you kidding me? That girl is adorable, if I wasn't already spoken for I would take a go at her in a heart beat."

"Gee, thanks for being faithful …" The athletic young man put on a mock pout.

"Hey, I'm not cheating on you by imagining where it could go. Besides, I don't consider you to be cheating on me every time you check out a cute looking girl."

"True, true. Sorry I over reacted, but seriously how did you come to the conclusion that Anna would be a good match for Elsa?" His speculations easily conveyed his distrust in Rapunzel's matchmaking abilities, which spurred the brunette to explain in detail her evaluation of Anna and Elsa's dating potential.

"Well, you know how Elsa is, she always has to be in control. Not that she is a control freak, but more like she had a very dominant personality, its hard finding people with a complementary personality to Elsa's. But I think Anna is exactly what Elsa needs, someone who is more laid back, and submissive, but at the same time Anna doesn't strike me as someone who would just take abuse lying down. Plus Anna is incredibly nice; I think she could really be good for Elsa. In the very few conversations I've had with her she is always looking out for those around her. She does have a slight pessimistic streak when she skews the good intentions behind her own words thinking she may have accidentally insulted someone with her word choices. She always considers the feelings of her friends … just the other day I asked her what kind of music she liked to listen to on the radio, but when she said she wasn't a fan of the music I liked she launched off into a ramble about how everyone has different tastes and that her distaste for musicals doesn't mean she doesn't like me or that I am in any way have bad taste … or something along those lines. The way she is on constant vigilance for any way that what she has said could possibly insult me or others is so cute!"

"Some people would call that being paranoid …"

"I would call it endearing." Eurgene, conceded the point before switch topics.

"… How do you even know she like girls?"

"Because not once did she look at you or Kristoff with a single hint of interest."

Eugene immediately countered, "Well the same could be said about how she never once looked at you, Suilvia, Meg, Mulan or Jane with any interest."

"True, but have you seen Elsa? She can't be compared to anyone in our circle."

Eugene sqeezed the brunette in his lap as he started speaking, "I would argue against that, but I'd rather not jump into that debate with you …"

Rapunzel turned her head to give her boyfriend a peak on the cheek. "Thank you."

After a few beats of silence, Eugene spoke up again.

"Still, something doesn't sit right with me about Anna … it feels like she's hiding something from us."

"I know what you mean. I think it has something to do with whatever is beneath those gloves of hers. She said that it was to protect against germs and dirt, but she was sitting on damp grass, and wasn't freaking out …"

"Yeah I noticed that, you think she as some sort of tattoo on her arms that she may be ashamed of?"

"I don't know Eugene, but I have noticed something about her music …"

"Yeah? What?"

"All of the music she makes starts out kind of sad and depressing. It almost like … never mind."

Eugene could only stare at the TV as his girlfriend Rapunzel, who was sitting in his lap, struggled to find the right words.

"I don't know why, but every time I see that look in her eyes, the one when she's thinking about the past, I feel my heart clench in pity. Like I would do anything for her, to help her out."

"I know what you mean Zel, I felt it too. That girl has not lead a pleasant life, but if we truly want to be the best of friends to her, then we simply have to be there for her, so that when she opens up to us and trusts us enough to tell us about her past we will be ready to support her."

The shorthaired brunette nodded once before leaning back against her boyfriend and falling asleep.

* * *

**End of Chapter 1**


	4. Chapter 2

**Just a couple things to say, I have been struggling to get my files uploaded onto FF for a while now, but with this new solution all of my problems appear to be fixed (still crossing my fingers it'll continue to work). As such I'll most likely remain on this site and post the rest of it here, on FF.**

**In case you didn't see the pre-chapter comment i uploaded onto Chapter 1 ... for those of you who remember this work prior to me taking it down, I have changed some things from the early chapters but most of them are the same. I will be gradually uploading all of the chapters so to allow those who are reading this story for the first time to be able to enjoy the work as it comes out at a reasonable pace. I ask that those of you who are returning to this work please be patient, we will get to the new stuff in no time.**

**I having nothing else to report at this time, but if i see another review that is posing a question that I feel compelled to answer I'll either answer it in the chapter that the review was posted on or in the next chapter to be uploaded. **

**This pre-story note was rather long, for that i apologize. I have nothing else to say, so enjoy.**

* * *

**Pink Mist: Chapter 2**

* * *

"Come on Punz, its 4:30, I don't think she's coming …"

"I hope she's okay … maybe she just had something important to take care of?"

"Hopefully … now, lets go."

* * *

The pain refuses to stop. Each sliver of pale skin that littered her flesh burned with the intensity of red-hot iron, searing the skin around the scars, like a brand.

The pain was both numbing and excruciating, leaving the poor girl who was burdened with these scars tremble in pain and fear.

Never had an episode so extreme hit her in a public space, they usually came at night when the lights were turned off and memories of _that room_ resurfaced fiercer than any other time of the day. But now the beast that was her past was rearing its ugly head and had wormed its way to the forefront of her consciousness to wreck havoc on her psyche.

She needs relief; she needs to stop the pain.

There were only two methods she knew of to stop the pain, but her current location and time of day made one of them impossible, so she opted for the other, less effective method.

She grabbed her backpack and sprinted to the bathroom. Luckily it was late enough in the day that no one was around, but nonetheless she made sure to check every stall before releasing an anxious breath and continuing.

She stepped up to the sink and fumbled with her pencil case, hidden inside was her other method. She desperately searched the pouch, until finally she grasped her target.

Out slid, from the brightly colored pencil case, a razor sharp box cutter, whose edge could slice through any material like butter, skin included.

The now trembling redhead removed her left glove, placing the box cutter in her right hand, and brought the knife's edge to her wrist, approximately three inches below the start of her palm.

She identified the cluster of pale white slits that were burrowed deep into her skin in the area. The scars on her hands were now throbbing; if she did not act soon she would blackout from the pain.

She took a deep breath and stared at the knife's edge as it slid across her skin, she didn't trust herself enough to swipe across her skin with the blade, instead opting to keep the blade perfectly still and moving her arm beneath the blade.

From the new incision spilled forth a steady stream of blood. The blood dribbled and slid across her skin like wine from a bottle, until it collected on the underside of her arm and dropped down into the drain of the sink below.

The pain from the new incision took the girls breath away, but after a brief moment the throbbing in her fingers and arms stopped. The pain of the new incision eclipsed the pain of her past, albeit for only an instant. But in that one instant, her mind cleared and the enraged beast returned to its slumber.

Anna carefully washed the cut with warm water, and wrapped it with the gauze that she carried around with her.

As she fastened the wrapping around her arm and slid the glove back on she proceed to clean the blade in the sink before discarding the used blade and sliding the blade up out of the case to inspect the next one to ensure that it would suffice should she need to cut again.

She took extra care to not be discovered due to something as simple as a wound infection born from a dirty blade, the result was that she went through an entire replaceable blade cartridge in a matter of weeks. Satisfied that she was prepared for the next time, she put the cutter back into the pencil case, and put it back into her bag.

In her pained state she forgot to zip up her bag completely, leaving a small gap on the side.

She exited the bathroom before checking her watch, _4:45 I guess it too late to meet up with Rapunzel._

As Anna walked towards the exit she passed by one of the empty studios and movement caught her eye. She turned towards the source of the movement and saw the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. A platinum blonde goddess stood within the empty room, dancing to music that Anna was unable to hear.

The way the blonde goddess twisted and spun around the room captured Anna's eyes, and for the first time in her entire life, she completely forgot about the throbbing, aching pain of her cuts or her scars.

For that brief instance, there was only the goddess. But every dream must come to an end, when the blonde realized she was being watched she snapped towards the door startling Anna, who backpedaled and fell over in the process. The blonde bolted towards the door to see if her uninvited audience member was all right. At the same time, the other inhabitants of the room raced to meet her at the door, at the front was Rapunzel. The shorthaired brunette caught of glimpse of red hair as the fleeing girl bolted down the hall.

She burst from the room, calling out to the fleeing girl.

"Anna?!"

She was gone, but from her fall an object dropped from her backpack, her pencil case. Rapunzel picked it up and began turning it in her hand before tossing it to the blonde behind her.

"That is the pencil case of that girl I was telling you about, she has a class tomorrow at 8:00 AM in the room down the hall. I can't return it to her because I'll be busy, but I know you have no classes tomorrow, so do me a favor and give it back to her?"

Elsa fiddled with the pencil case before looking up at her friend and nodded.

* * *

While Elsa was waiting for Anna's class to be dismissed, Elsa sat in the same studio she was in the night before. With nothing else to occupy her mind she turned to the cylindrical object in her hands.

She knew better than to go through the belongings of a stranger, but her curiosity got the better of her and she zipped open the case. Inside were a large number of pencils of all ranges of lengths and colors.

Something with a flat metallic glint caught the eye of the blonde, and she cautiously reached into case to retrieve the peculiar object, it took a bit to clear away the other utensils in the way, but eventually the way was clear. The blonde grasped the foreign object firmly in her hand and brought it out of the case to inspect in it the light of the room.

The platinum blonde gasped, in her hand she held an impossibly sharp box cutter that was missing nearly half of its discard-able blades. On the hilt of the handle, where the blade met the plastic molding, Elsa noticed a small amount of some kind of maroon crust lodged in the gap. It took her a moment to realize that the strange material was dried blood.

Before Elsa could contemplate the implications of her shocking discovery the sounds of the hall filling with chatting student snapped her out of her daze. Anna's class had clearly ended, so Elsa shoved the box cutter back into the case and vaulted across the room to the door. Rather than sifting through the students as the flowed out of the room, she opted to patiently wait in the doorway. Rapunzel had mentioned that Anna usually traveled with the Dean of the Art and Music Program, Mrs. Baker, and that she could expect to find Anna with the older woman after class.

True to Rapunzel's word, after the other students left, the Dean and a cute looking redhead emerged from the auditorium. Elsa's breath hitched in her throat when her eyes fell upon the redhead. The small girl radiated adorable-ness, with her small cute face, button nose, tranquil teal eyes and molten copper locks, Elsa was struggling to keep her eyes off of the girl.

As the object of Elsa's intent stare and the instructor approached their attention shifted to the gawking blonde, who managed to end her staring before they noticed what she was doing.

When she was a few feet away form the pair, Elsa stepped towards them and cleared her throat. She tried her best to look the younger girl in the face, but she found such a task nearly impossible if she wanted to form words in the process, instead she began staring daggers into the air just above Anna's right shoulder.

She cleared her throat once more before introducing herself, "Hi, my name is Elsa Winter, I'm a friend of Rapunzel's … The other day you caught us- me dancing in one of the studios down the hall. I apologize for startling you that night, and I'm here to return this to you," Elsa held out the pencil case with two hands, trying to cover as much of the pouch with her hands as possible to increase the chances that her and Anna's hands would brush against each other.

"You dropped it when you were leaving, and Rapunzel told me that you had a class this morning, so I decided to come give it back to you."

After a beat of silence, the redhead made no motion to retrieve her pencil case, or respond to the blonde's introduction. Elsa's eyes shifted back to the redhead's face, only to find that the redhead's pupils were dilated, nearly eclipsing the ring of teal, and were darting all across her body.

Normally such a reaction would elicit a feeling of disgust in Elsa, but for some reason the only sensation that steadily grew within her was one of smoldering warmth.

Before the new and unknown sensation could grow any hotter, the redhead's hands shot forward, enveloping the pencil case and Elsa's hands into a tight embrace. However, once the younger girls hands clapped down upon the elder's, the blonde was instantly disappointed.

Wedged between the much-desired skin-contact was the thick material of tan colored gloves. Before the blonde even had a chance to contemplate why the redhead was wearing such an article of clothing, the small amount of warmth that seeped through Anna's gloves was whisked way, along with the pencil case.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you! … Oh sorry, my name is Anna, and thank you for returning my pencil case to me … its very important to me." The blubbering redhead made a motion to open the case, but apparently decided against it. Elsa noticed the younger girls hesitance, but was lost in her own mind at the implications.

_**She was about to check for that box cutter wasn't she?**_

_No, Elsa, stop assuming things about a girl you just met. For all you know she uses that box cutter on her art projects …_

_**Oh yeah? Then was about that dried blood in the hilt?**_

… _that could just be dried paint … Besides what could a girl as pretty as her possibly have to worry about?_

_**You should know better than anyone that looks do not guarantee an easy life.**_

… _Enough …_

Elsa shook her head side to side, shaking herself from the recesses of her mind. It took her a moment to notice that both the redhead and the Dean were staring at her expectantly; there had obviously been a question direct towards her that she missed.

"I'm sorry, can you repeat that? I think I zoned out for a minute there."

The aged adult spoke up, "As I just said, Anna and I were about to go to a nearby café for a late-breakfast slash early-lunch. You're free to join us if you would like?"

Elsa broke out in a blinding grin at the prospect of spending more time with the adorable redhead. She really looked forward to getting to know her.

"I would love to join you, so long as I'm not bothering you."

"No, never. Anna is new to the area and she could always use some more friends."

"Mrs. Baker!" Gerda shot Anna a stern look that had an underlying hint of hurt. Anna grimaced and Elsa looked on in confusion.

Gerda spoke in a slightly scolding tone.

"Anna …"

The redhead lowered her head in shame before raising her chin once more.

"… Gerda …"

"Better." The elderly woman smiled before turning back to Elsa.

Elsa did not quite know how to react to the adorable interaction between the redhead and Dean, so she opted to let the giggle that bubbled up her throat loose, but she raised her hand to cover her mouth to keep the volume to a minimum.

The sound of the blonde's laugh instantly captured the redhead's attention. To her it could only be described as the sound of the sleigh bells jingling from the sleigh of the elusive man in the red suit, or as the sound of angels singing in heaven.

In an instant, the redhead's composer mind surged forward to find an arrangement that would emulate such a sound. When the amused blonde's laughter subsided, the redhead noticed she was staring and saved herself just in time, breaking out into a face splitting grin that was her first genuine smile since her arrival at this school.

* * *

Ever since Elsa had lunch with the Bakers, she found herself drawn to the cute redhead, she would often find herself outside the redhead's classes waiting for her to get out just so she could spend time with the younger girl before her next class, or invite her out to lunch with the gang during midday.

Elsa once gathered her courage and asked the redhead to join her for a weekend, just the two of them.

Needless to say, the "date" went well, and Anna seemed to enjoy it as much as Elsa.

Luckily, Elsa's graduate program was one where actual class attendance was supplementary to the content, and with Elsa's intelligence and natural affinity for the class material she could easily sail through the program with a 4.0 GPA without ever going to a class. So she spent most of her time with the redhead, but the blonde couldn't shake the notion that something felt off about Anna.

There was an odd disconnect between Anna's actions and her words, she would often deny invitations to join Elsa and her gang to a relaxing evening of dancing in one of the studios, but after much insistence and a brilliant idea from Rapunzel, they finally got Anna to join them under the pretense that she would be the DJ for their practice, mixing samples on the spot for them to practice to.

Elsa noticed the stares and the yearning that those teal pools carried with them whenever she caught the not-so-subtle redhead gazing at her while she moved with the music.

Elsa was convinced that her crush on the redhead was one sided, so she assumed that that longing stare was due to Anna's desire to dance.

As time went by this setup became a routine, Anna would compose club music for them to practice to and perform to, then they would bring the clubs with them for the resident DJ's to play for their performance.

Nearly every time the DJ at the club would ask who composed the song and express their desire to meet such a talented musician, but due to Anna's own insistence they were forced to say that either an unnamed "friend" made it or one of them made it.

This was another one of those examples of Anna's bizarre behavior. Elsa could not figure out why Anna refused to take credit for her own amazing music.

To be fair, Elsa was still in the dark about Anna's personality, she had yet to see the depressing, self-deprecating, near suicidal, pessimist that Anna truly was.

In reality Anna thought her music was absolute garbage and she was convinced that Elsa and her friends were simply taking the flash drive of music with them as an act of kindness. Anna didn't want her name associated with such trashy music, nor did she want her "friends" performing to such music, she felt that it disgraced their earnest passion, tainting it even.

This mentality also carried over to Anna's insistence upon never dancing, she was a good dancer, heck she even went out once a month to "relieve stress" at a local club. But that wasn't real dancing, that wasn't the dancing that Elsa and everyone else were creating to express their emotions.

No, what Anna was doing was simply using the medium of dance to fulfill her own selfish needs. At least that was according to Anna's train of thought.

Anna's habit of going out and dancing at a club and severely injuring herself was the result of two conflicting emotions that were raging on in Anna's heart: one was the undeniable desire to be heard, to scream out in pain and hope that someone would hear and extend a hand while asking, "are you okay?" This side motivated her to seek out crowded clubs to dance at, but the other half forced her to wear a disguise, to hide from the world behind a mask. This half was the self-loathing and self-destructive tendencies that told her that she wasn't worth saving, that she should just forget about all her emotional pain through the infliction of physical pain, to cover her scars with more scars, and that one way or another the pain will end …

But that didn't mean that Anna disliked dancing, she simply disliked what dancing had become to her.

She longed to be able to move with the music, to let the music move her like it did for Elsa and the others. But in her eyes, her music was tainted, her dancing was tainted, she was tainted.

Never again would she be pure or deserving of a clean slate. But that didn't stifle her stares of yearning. Something that Elsa noticed with incredible ease.

* * *

One afternoon, Anna was the first to the studio and began setting up her laptop and the connecting it to the already present keyboard. She began playing simple chords that carried with them a light and energetic feel to them, then she added the drums with a slightly boosted bass drum to accentuate the beat. With the addition of several other accompaniment instruments, a saxaphone for a new twist, some techno and synth to keep it edgy, and her own chords playing on loop, and she had the practice piece for tonight.

It was simple, short, and could be played on loop for hours without sounding too repetitive, as well as having plenty of room for improvisation if any of the dancers wanted some extra flare during a certain sequence.

As time ticked by, no one had shown up yet, and with the music still pumping through the speakers, Anna eventually found her body moving to the beat.

She did a quick double take around the room to make sure she was alone before letting her music possess her body completely. It had been a long time since she was able to just dance to the music without worrying about who was watching, or about her club routine that she used to fight the pain.

She simply let the music guide her, not giving mind to her surroundings and allowing herself to sink into the beat.

She was so engrossed in the music she did not even notice the blonde spectator that arrived after a few minutes. Said blonde was stunned into silence, she had her inkling that the redhead could dance, but never like this, the younger girl's movements captivated her. The swaying of the redhead's hips lit a fire in the pit of her abdomen, one that was stoked into a blaze every time the younger girl's pelvis gyrated with the beat.

The blonde was perfectly content to just stare at the redhead, she would gladly do so for hours if she could, but every dream comes to an end. Eventually Anna did a spin and in her pivot she caught sight of the staring blonde, quickly halting all movement to stare back at the older girl with a look of pure terror.

Elsa still in a trance and feeding off her high from watching the redhead dance didn't notice the redhead's breathing pick up, despite her dance stopping.

Before she could restrain herself, Elsa's damn burst. She began speaking a mile a minute, not even realizing the tears in the redhead's eyes that threatened to fall.

"I knew it! I knew you could dance! I don't now why you refuse to dance with us, you would be great … you are great!" Elsa finally snapped out of her trance when Anna's piercing voice cut through the air.

"I'M NOT!" Both Anna and Elsa flinched. Anna took advantage of the break in conversation to stride over to her laptop. "I'm not … I uh- … made a piece for tonight's practice …" She clicked a few times before unplugging her laptop, "I've saved it to the keyboards memory, just hit play when you want it to play … I've uh- … gotta g-go …"

Before Elsa could say anything else, the trembling redhead has sprinted past her and down the hall, her laptop clasped firmly to her chest as she ran.

Self-deprecating thoughts plagued the redhead as she ran.

_She saw! She __**saw**__ me! She saw me dancing! She saw me at my ugliest! She was shocked into silence at how utterly disgusting my dancing is! She was just trying to make me feel better by saying that … I don't blame her, I wouldn't want to watch me dance … heck, forget my dancing … I wouldn't want anything to do with someone as disgusting as me. I'm surprised at how nice they're being to me … but after this they're sure to not want to see me anymore. I shouldn't get so worked up about this, I mean it was only a matter of time until their goodwill ended and they decided to leave me __**too**_.

* * *

After that incident Anna refused to come to any more of their practices, Elsa was plagued with thoughts that she had offended the younger girl, and the redhead's avoiding tendencies plagued her mind every day.

_What if I've offended her?_

_What if she never wants to see me again?_

_What if she hates me now?_

Such thoughts dominated Elsa's mind for the following few days, each one made her heart clench in such agony that she threatened to breakdown and cry every time she was reminded of the redhead.

The older girl never realized how much she came to rely on Anna's presence, after seeing her nearly every day and spending most of her time with the redhead, to suddenly go days without so much as seeing the girl was like taking a drug addict away from their fix.

Anna was her air, without her she could barely breath.

Anna was happiness and without her around the blonde couldn't muster even the tiniest of smiles.

Anna had been the persistent existence that Elsa relied upon to piece her own broken heart back together.

* * *

When Elsa was growing up her parents were never home. They were always out on a business trip or in a meeting; Elsa pretty much grew up alone in a giant empty house. As a result she developed an abandonment trauma.

She could never deal with parting with people any longer than a day or two, so she chose to either see her friends every day or not get close to anyone that she would miss. And this worked, until she met a dashing young boy who was the man of her dreams, or so she thought.

He had everything, the looks, the intelligence, he was funny and always played pranks or threw snowballs at people whenever he got the chance; he was fun incarnate. He also sung words to promise in the ear of a naïve Elsa, claiming to always be by her side, to never leave her, to never let her feel alone.

Only to up and vanish the next instant, he felt no remorse and easily left the dependent and "clingy" blonde behind in favor of a more "stable" girl. The breakup left Elsa shattered, she closed herself off, never making friends with anyone else, only those she already shared a deep bond with remained within her closed circle of trust.

And so she stayed, closed off in her own world, keeping only existing connections alive, and never making new ones, until a certain fragile redhead unintentionally wormed her way into the blonde's frozen heart.

Elsa _needed_ Anna, and only now did the blonde realize this. Had she known earlier she might have been more careful to not upset the one she truly cared for. But as it is often said, _we don't know what we have until we've lost it._

But Elsa would not give up; she refused to let things simply end like _that one time_.

She pursued Anna, waiting in ambush after class to invite her to lunch, or sitting in on class – a practice that the Dean would frown upon but not outwardly forbid – and sitting near the redhead. She sought out that which she truly needed, and her efforts did not go to waste.

After confronting the redhead after class once Elsa could not longer hold back.

"Please forgive me! I know I did something to upset you, and I'm sorry. If you please tell me what I did wrong, I promise you that I will never do it again, I swear!"

The redhead was left reeling at Elsa's earnest attempt to rekindle their friendship, she was convinced that Elsa wouldn't want anything to do with her after seeing her disgusting dancing, but the sight of the blonde going so far stirred an odd feeling in Anna's chest.

It hurt to see Elsa so desperate. So she swallowed her own insecurities and addressed Elsa's apology.

"E-Elsa, it's not you, its me. I just need some space to think … but if you say you'll promise … please don't ever ask me to dance again."

Elsa frowned at Anna's request, of course she would do it, she couldn't help but feel a twinge of loss at the prospect at never being able to see the redhead dance again. But if that were what it took to get her redhead back then she would never ask again.

"You have a deal, I promise to never ask you to dance ever again." Elsa frowned for an instant longer, before showing off a splitting grin. Anna mimicked her smile.

"Good, in that case. I'll see you at practice tonight?" Elsa couldn't believe she had been forgiven so easily, and thus wasn't expecting Anna's promise to come back to the practice sessions so readily.

"Yes! Oh- uh- I mean- Yeah, I'll see you later."

Elsa was practically skipping down the hall the after their exchange, sure she felt sad that she could never ask her to dance again, but that didn't mean that she couldn't have her friends ask her.

More than anything she was looking forward to practice that afternoon, to see the bubbly redhead in her natural element, immersed in her music.

* * *

It would not be several more weeks until Elsa finally remembered about the box cutter that she thought had blood in the handle, which was hidden in Anna's pencil case. Elsa had noticed that every couple of days, Anna would claim to have to speak to Gerda for something important, but when Elsa would then show up at the Dean's office shortly after looking for Anna, Gerda would claim that she hadn't talked to Anna.

Anna's odd behavior sent off warning signs in Elsa's mind.

_What if she's meeting with a guy in secret? _

_**Then you should be happy for her that she got a boyfriend**__._

_But … I …_

_**You … what? Anna doesn't belong to you.**_

_I know that, but … _

_**But … what? If Anna really did find a boyfriend, you have no right to take away what little happiness she finally found for herself! **_

_But … I want to be the one to make Anna happy. I want …_

_**What do you want?**_

_I want to be Anna's girlfriend; I want her to be my girlfriend!_

_**Then you have to fight for her, she's not going to become your girlfriend while your sitting here moping about a potential boyfriend, get off your ass and go make her yours.**_

Elsa had learned to appreciate the honest side of herself that she kept locked away in her subconscious, it often came in handy to motivate herself to work towards something she could never outwardly admit she wanted. She wanted Anna, and her inner self helped her realize that.

So, Elsa began following the redhead around, much to her relief it just appeared that Anna would pay a visit to one of the more secluded and rarely used women's restrooms on the upper floors whenever she would disappear, and not a secret boyfriend.

But Anna's choice of escape scared her a little, _Why would Anna be going to a bathroom by herself?_

_**Uh …To go to the bathroom? Maybe?**_

_I have a feeling that's its something else …_

Elsa's mind wandered into dangerous territory, all concerning the box cutter she had found in the girl's pencil case.

She hoped that she was wrong and that she only used it for art projects or for other harmless reasons and that she was in the bathroom for the simple reason of needing the relieve herself.

Elsa clung to that idea with a passion; she didn't want to believe that someone like Anna would be subjecting herself to such cruelty. But that idealistic world could not exist forever.

* * *

Elsa and her gang had just finished another round of practicing routines and the hours were creeping into late afternoon. As usual Elsa was the last one out, not wanting practice to end.

On her way out of the building she ran into the Mrs. Baker.

"Hi, Mrs. Baker! Are you waiting for Anna?"

Gerda had an anxious look on her face, something that sent shivers down Elsa's spine.

"Hello Elsa, Anna said she had to use the bathroom, but she's been gone almost 20 minutes …"

At the mention of a missing Anna, Elsa dropped her bag and turned around towards the first floor restrooms, in her retreat from the Dean she looked over her shoulder and called back to the older woman, "I'll go check on her!"

After catching a brief nod from Mrs. Baker, Elsa sprinted down the hall. The blonde noticed that Mrs. Baker did not have Anna's bag, which meant that Anna had it with her, which meant that Anna had her pencil case and in turn that box cutter with her too.

_Please! Please, let me be wrong!_

Elsa stumbled to a halt before the bathroom door to the lady's room. The sound of muffled sniffling secured a vice around her heart, squeaking ever tighter with every shaky breath that escaped the bathroom occupant's mouth. Before her nerves got the best of her Elsa slowly pushed the door open, only enough to peer inside. Elsa nearly fainted at the sight.

Standing there with her back to the door, in front of the sink was a broken and trembling girl, her skin colored glove was resting on the sink to her left. In her trembling right hand was the box cutter, drenched in a vibrant crimson liquid. Her left hand was dead still above the sink, with the warm water of the sink washing over her skin and the incision, from which blood gushed out.

After a moment Elsa's eyes caught sight of something on the younger girl's flesh, tears sprung forth from sapphire eyes. Littered all across the younger girl's flesh were slits and slashes of pale, silvery skin … scars.

Further down the young girl's pale arm were numerous angry red slits, marks that were much more recent and still healing.

Elsa struggled to fight back the tears, here was the most sincere, endearing, selfless, amazingly talented person she had ever met who felt better cutting into her own flesh rather than coming to talk to her friends or family.

The floodgates that were Elsa's eyes, that she struggled to keep in check, completely shattered when her eyes flickered up to the reflections of Anna's face in the mirror.

Teal eyes poured forth a steady stream of tears, staining her pale and gaunt cheeks. Her hair was damp and plastered to her face, likely due to a combination of sweat and tears, her skin was sickly pale.

Her otherwise radiant molten copper hair was rust in color, and lacked the usual lightness and free flowing nature Elsa usually associated with Anna's hair. Her eyes were no longer the same vibrant and vivid teal, instead they had darkened to a ferocious green-blue that struggled to hide the maelstrom of emotions that swirled just below their surface. The trembling orbs of green-blue were vibrant with fury betrayed their owner with a heavy layer of disgust.

However, such destructive emotions were being directed back at the owner of those eyes. Such a realization renewed Elsa's tears, and before she could stifle it a high-pitched squeal escaped her lips. The pale redhead whipped her head around, but the blonde was already gone.

* * *

On her way back Elsa took a moment to clean herself up, but the tears wouldn't stop. As she approached the _still_ waiting Mrs. Baker the tears threatened to renew, not wanting to upset the older woman, Elsa sprinted past her, hiding her face with her bangs.

"S-she'll be out in a minute."

"Elsa?"

* * *

The following week was confusing for Anna. Elsa refused to look her in the eye, and only returned her conversation with curt, short small talk.

At first Anna thought it was something she had said or did, but with the insistence of Rapunzel and Rapunzel's boyfriend, she was convinced otherwise. But they had failed to answer her question, _What is wrong with Elsa?_

It took a couple of days for the distressed redhead to connect the dots, and link Elsa's behavior to the mysterious peeper who almost caught her the last time she cut.

Such a thought terrified her, and redoubled her episode frequency a new. Only, this time around she took care to only cut in bathrooms far removed from the general public, such as the abandoned bathroom on the top floor of the arts building.

After Anna linked Elsa to the peeper, the fragile redhead went out of her way to avoid all contact with the blonde or her friends, opting instead to devote herself to her music in one of the sound studios.

* * *

Sometimes Anna cursed Gerda's skill in reading between the lines of a music score. For every time Gerda asked Anna to play her latest piece, a request that the young girl could never refuse lest she risk angering the older woman, the time honored artist would always furrow her brow in worry and ask the young composer what was wrong. Anna made the mistake of attributing Gerda's ability to read her through her music as the older woman's skill, when in fact it was her own talent for pouring such raw emotion into her music.

Every time the inquiry was met with a curt, "Nothing," and the older woman would not press the girl, fearing she would push the redhead back into her silent state she broke out of just month's prior.

Thus this conversation stalemate and social avoidance tendencies continued for the following 2 weeks. Never was the source of the conflict brought to light.

* * *

Several days into the stalemate between Anna, Gerda and Elsa; Rapunzel and the rest of the gang confronted Elsa.

"Elsa! What the _hell_ are you doing?!"

Elsa, clearly blindsided by this sudden ambush was left in genuine confusion.

"What? What are you talking about?"

"Why have you been treating Anna like she doesn't exist?"

"I'm not 'treating Anna like she doesn't exist'! I'm not!"

"Oh yeah? Then when was the last time you talked to her? I mean, _really_ talked to her?"

"…" Elsa remained silent in contemplation.

She had been so engrossed in the realization that Anna has been cutting herself that she lost all sense of reality. She had been going about her normal routine on autopilot while she tried to wrap her head around Anna's behavior. She didn't even realize she had been avoiding her.

"Oh god … Oh god … What have I done?" Elsa began hyperventilating and mumbling incoherently. Rapunzel immediately grabbed her shoulders and tried to shake her out of it, but it wasn't working. Left with no other option, Rapunzel reeled back her arm and slapped Elsa _hard_ across the face.

Elsa gasped at the impact, her rambling stopping at the same time.

"Okay … calm down Elsa … We're here for you … just tell us what's happening … we promise we will do what ever we can to help …"

"I … I didn't even realize what I've been doing to her. I've been ignoring her ever since-" Elsa cut herself off, not because she thought they shouldn't know but because she just couldn't handle putting what he saw into words.

"-since a couple days ago. I didn't even consider how it would be affecting Anna … I'm so stupid, I'm sure she hates me now!"

"Elsa, listen to me, we all know how you fell about Anna, _truly_ feel about her and we are all in agreement when I say that Anna feels the same way towards you. There is no way she could ever hate you, even if we ignore her feelings, she is too nice and sincere to hate _anyone …_ and you know that."

"…" Elsa was silent, intently listening to her long time friend.

"You messed up-" Elsa flinched "but its not the end of the world, you realize your mistake and you regret it right?" Elsa nodded, "Then you just need to do better from her on out. Right?"

"Right."

* * *

Despite Rapunzel's encouraging words, Elsa was still at a loss, she just could not understand Anna's choices.

_Why was she cutting herself like that? _

_Why was she trying to hide under those gloves? _

_Was it the cutting scars? _

_Or is there something more to those other scars she has on her hands? _

_And that look, she hates herself … no … its much more than that, she couldn't stand the sight of herself. _

_Oh god what if she takes this further?!_

_I don't know what I would do she decided to- … I almost lost her once; I couldn't stand to lose her again, nonetheless by her own hand! _

_But what do I do? Anna won't even look at me, let alone talk to me …_

That's when inspiration struck her, she immediately took off from her dorm to Mrs. Baker's office; she needed answers.

* * *

**End of Chapter 2**


	5. Chapter 3

**Nothing to report this time around, so enjoy.**

* * *

**Pink Mist - Chapter 3**

* * *

Elsa was out of breath by the time she reached the Dean's office. It was Thursday evening, and Anna was in class, and still would be for another 2 hours. Mrs. Baker on the other hand usually waited in her office for Anna's class to end, and then would go to pick up her daughter from the classroom to head home. Elsa knocked firmly on the door, wincing ever so slightly when the door jostled in the frame from her forceful knock.

"Come in!" Gerda's voice flittered through the door almost immediately; Elsa mustered her courage and entered the office.

The Dean's office certainly could not be classified as large, but it was sizable enough to accommodate four book shelves, each stuffed full of music folders and books of varying topics from dance instructions, to the differentiating characteristics of artists from the same artistic era, to the application of advanced music composition styles.

The bookshelves were clustered together, side-by-side on the far wall of the office. On the adjacent wall, that was parallel with the Dean's desk, sat a wall littered with a large number of frames.

These frames were home to many photos, which often depicted the same female youth in a variety of activities ranging from dancing, to painting, to playing an instrument, to conducting an orchestra. These same frames were also home to many certificates and awards, all with the same name imprinted into the parchment, _Gerda Baker_.

On the opposite side of the room sat the Dean's desk, the aged, stained, mahogany desk simply drew the eyes of new comers, and demanded admiration, paired with an incredibly comfortable looking high-back leather chair.

The bookshelves added a scholarly feel to the room, while the numerous awards inspired awe, and the desk and chair carried with them a commanding presence that demanded subservience.

All-in-all the room was everything that a Dean's office should be, yet the kind older woman who called this office her own, gave off an aura of kindness and universal acceptance that almost seemed to contradict the office, yet somehow worked. The resulting aura the room radiated was a warm and welcoming office that offered tranquility to those there on good will, while paralyzing those there on ill will, with fear.

Elsa, who had just entered this office on neither good nor ill will, noticed this contrast and made a mental note to one day own an office just like this one.

"Oh? Elsa? To what do I owe the pleasure? I do hope Anna hasn't done anything … embarrassing?"

"No, Mrs. Baker-"

"Please, child. Just Gerda will do."

"Gerda … Anna is still in class I believe, while I am here concerning Anna … I'm more looking for … information."

Gerda frowned at that, closing her laptop she had been typing on, and putting down her reading glasses to give the fidgeting blonde her full attention.

"If you're here to ask me if its alright if you and Anna can hang out again this weekend, I already told you, you don't have to ask m-"

"I'm not here for that!" Gerda flinched, and Elsa grimaced, she had just raised her voice to her superior and felt terrible for it, but she needed answers, so she pressed on.

"I'm not here for that … Gerda, I'm here because I'm worried about Anna …"

"'Worried'? Why? Has Anna said something?"

"No, she hasn't said anything, but that's the problem. She hasn't talked to me for the past two weeks …"

"… two weeks? … That's about how long Anna has been acting strangely and her music has taken a turn for the worse about 2 weeks ago…" Gerda mumbled to her self.

This was news to Elsa, desperate to know anything concerning the redhead she inquired about Anna's music, "What do you mean?"

"Well, it would be best to just show you …" Gerda went to stand as she let her statement drop off. After finally reaching the standing position, a task that was taking an increasing amount of time in her old age, she made to cross her office.

Gerda stood from behind her desk and walked over to one of her many bookshelves, pulling from it what looked like a picture album, when she opened said picture album the inside was filled with CD's.

"I know CD's are old fashion but it is what I've been working with for my entire life, and its what I'm most comfortable with … I've been compiling an album of all of Anna's music through these last few months that we've been together …"

Gerda flipped through the pages solemnly and with eyes filled with nostalgia, like a mother flipping through an album full of pictures of their child growing up.

"Gerda … What did you mean when you said that Anna's music had changed?"

Elsa's question snapped Gerda from her trance and she flipped to the last page of the album and slipped out a silver CD that read the "Anna Baker Date: -/-/-"

The older woman walked over to an old CD player on the other side of the room, and slid the CD into the bay. She waited a moment to spare a glance to Elsa before pressing play.

Just before the music began Gerda spoke to Elsa, "Anna's favorite type of music to compose is usually orchestral music of symphonic music, and as a result she is capable of pouring her all into these types of music."

After a brief pause the speakers scattered all around the room began pouring forth music. It started out triumphant, proud and powerful with great booming passages from the brass, but very quickly the orchestra lost its way, obvious cues were missed leaving sections to come back into the music scattered and disorganized.

The music nearly completely fell apart, had it not been for the constant rhythmic beating of the percussion, which sounded not unlike a heartbeat, the performance would have been halted.

Soon long agonizing and distressed chords emerged from the strings, but their key was completely off leaving the listener cringing from the heavy dissonance. The underlying harmony was nearly non-existent, leaving only melody, but having only melody left the piece feeling half empty, sad and lonely. This combination of depressing melody with no harmony and overwhelming pain induced passages from the strings, gave Elsa an insight into the whirlwind of emotions that Anna was struggling with.

She was sad, depressed, lonely, afraid, and worse of all she was in pain. Next came a loud, heavily articulated, passage from the previously silent horns, but the force behind their music was too strong, it didn't balance with the rest of the band, instead it fought against it, as if it was attacking the rest of the band. These furious horns lashed out at the strings whenever they sang out in pain, quickly silencing them.

Always, did the horns quickly fade out of the music, as if trying to hide from the listener.

Eventually the music began to fade from underneath the still vicious horns. Until finally, all the music came to a halt, Elsa was about to inquire what it all meant but Gerda raised a finger to tell her to wait.

From the silence emerged a lone trumpet playing solemn tones that portrayed overwhelming sorrow and depression. Until it suddenly jumped several octaves higher and played a sound that Elsa had never heard a trumpet do, it sounded almost like laughter. Then that too eventually fell into the darkness, claimed by the void of silence.

Gerda quickly pressed eject and returned the CD to the album.

"Gerda … wh- … is- … I-I knew Anna was talented in composing music, but I've never heard her write anything other than club music … Did she really make that?"

"She did, but for some reason she is convinced that her music is- … she refuses to acknowledge her own talents in music. It was only by my own insistence that she come here to this School of Art and Music … although I sometimes wonder if she truly wants to be here, or if she is simply staying because she doesn't want to upset me …"

"She wouldn't be here if she didn't want to be."

"You can't say that … you don't know what Anna came from."

"Then tell me, I want to know!"

"It isn't my place to tell you, even I don't know her whole story … I've been too much of a coward to look at her file."

"What 'file'? What are you talking about?"

"Never mind. You do not _need_ to know her past, please just _let this go_ …"

"No! Mrs. Baker! I care about her … a lot … I want- … I _do_ _need_ to know what is going on with Anna!" The force in Elsa's voice was the spark that set off the Dean, the previously docile and calm older woman instantly was replaced with a fuming Dean.

"That is enough! This discussion is over Ms. Winter! You will leave this topic alone while in my presence, and should I make any headway in figuring it out you will be notified at _my_ earliest convenience. I will not continue to stand here and debate this with you, child!"

Elsa was utterly shocked. Not only was that one of the first times an adult had raised their voice to her, but also it was unheard of for the ever gentle and kind Dean Baker to raise her voice, let alone display any emotion other than sincerity and tranquility. This new older woman before her had stunned Elsa into silence.

After a few brief moments, Elsa's vocals thawed and Mrs. Baker's temper seemed to cool.

"I'm sorry Mrs. Baker, I didn't mean to upset you …"

A scowl emerged on the older woman's face, and for a brief instant Elsa feared she had made the woman angry, _again._ Until the blonde heard a brief chuckle flutter through a small smirk on the older woman's face.

"For the love of god, Elsa, please just call me Gerda. Mrs. Baker was my mother, everyone called her that, and I refuse to be known by the same name."

As relief washed over the blonde, she could form no words, and thus nodded in agreement. She did not want to incur the older woman's wrath again, thus deciding the commit the decree to memory.

Before Elsa could speak up to plead for information one last time, Gerda spoke up.

"Elsa … please, what Anna needs right now is a friend, and from what I've seen you are the best friend she has ever had. I beg of you, please keep being her friend. You can continue to be her friend without knowing her past, so _please_ …"

To Elsa each utterance of the word 'friend' struck an odd chord in her heart, the resulting pitch that resonated from this chord was hollow. It left her feeling empty, and desiring more.

She wanted more … _more of what?_

Opting to explore these odd feelings further in the future, Elsa sorted away this foreign emotion to the back of her mind.

In the wake of a begging Mrs. Baker, Elsa was forced to concede and retreat to the door.

Elsa turned to the now calm Dean once more before bidding her a farewell and deftly exiting the room, carefully closing the door behind her. The moment the door was closed the blonde's posture slumped as the tension left her body, she let out a shaky breath and set out to find her friends for some relaxation.

* * *

"Elsa, as much as I like this new habit of yours to go clubbing ever couple of days, I know you're not a club person. So, why don't you drop the act and tell your best childhood friend what's bothering you?"

Elsa could only peer at the concerned looking brunette with a quizzical look; obviously the blonde had not heard her over the blaring music of the club they currently sat in. The brunette let out a surprising loud sigh, filled with annoyance and frustration, before grabbing the clueless blonde and dragging her to the lady's room, where it was much quieter.

"I said, what's eating you?"

"Nothing … I just wanted to have some fun!"

"Mhm, so if you wanted some fun why not go out on another _date_ with Anna? After all, you two are talking again, or so you told me …"

Elsa went pale at the mentioning of Anna, it was true that she told Rapunzel that she and Anna were on speaking terms again, but that was a lie. She just needed to get away from it all for a night, and not worry about school, or Anna; although, this trip was succeeding in preoccupying her mind from only one of those.

"I called her and asked, but said she was busy …" The lie was detected by the astute brunette before it even left the blonde's lips.

"Bullshit, Elsa. We have been friends since we've had baby teeth, don't you dare try and stand there and lie to me!"

Rapunzel's outburst made Elsa grimace, initiating the self-loathing. Caught up in the moment, neither of them noticed the stuttering of the speakers that had been faithfully thumping along to the beat. Before the blonde could lower her head in shame her best friend spoke up again.

"I know you care about Anna, the normal you would've stopped at nothing to clear up this fight that has come between the two of you-" Elsa flinched at the mention of her and Anna's 'fight,' another lie. "-but this same fight has been going on for three weeks. Three weeks, Elsa! So stop lying, and tell me what's wrong! What is keeping you from patching things up with Anna?"

Elsa could only stand there in quiet defiance.

"Unless … has Anna _done_ something to _you_?"

Elsa snapped her head up so quickly she heard her neck pop. The shocked blonde stared at the silently contemplating brunette.

"Has … has she hurt you? I swear to god and all that is holy, if she has done _anything_ to hurt you, I'll hit her so hard the only 'music' she'll be hearing is the ringing in her own ears!"

Elsa could only chuckle at the faithfulness and protective behavior that her best friend portrayed, but her own protective instincts took over in an effort to protect Anna.

"No, Zel. Anna hasn't done anything … she isn't guilty of hurting me, only herself-" Elsa stopped mid-sentence, frozen in place by what she just let slip.

It was now the brunette's turn to be stunned into silence.

"What?"

"No, I'm sorry, forget I said anything!"

"NO! What did you just say!?"

Rapunzel had grappled onto the blonde in the confusion that followed Elsa's verbal slip, forcing her to look into the horrified pupils of her best friend. Elsa committed herself to silence.

"Did you just say that Anna is hurting herself?" The whisper was uttered softly, as if saying it any louder would make it a reality.

Elsa let slip a whimper and dipped her head in acknowledgement.

The stunned brunette released her death grip on the blonde and walked over to lean on the sinks.

"Oh my god …"

Elsa could only wait in anticipation, knowing that the brunette was not done with her questions, that more were on their way, and that she was just trying to absorb this world-shattering piece of information.

After what felt like an eternity to Elsa, Rapunzel finally pushed off the sinks and returned to her position before her, face set in undeniable determination, her eyes shone with a fire that bordered on rage, but held traces of insurmountable anxiety.

"When?"

"Three weeks ago, after practice. I caught her-…" Elsa's voice broke down, the task of reliving such an event had become an impossible high barrier that prevented her from telling anyone what she saw that afternoon.

"Shhh, its okay, take your time. I'm not going anywhere. This is important, you have to do your best in telling me what happened … for Anna's sake." At the mention of Anna's wellbeing, Elsa's eyes snapped up to meet the brunette's, beneath the surface of blue orbs swirled a storm of emotions that threatened to throw the girl down a spiral of depression and sadness.

Only by the strength of the strong and dependable mask that she dons has she been able to cope with the war that has been raging on inside her. Upon seeing just how much her best friend has been suffering, Rapunzel wrapped the girl up in a tight and warm embrace that gave the now shivering girl the strength to continue.

"I caught her- … cutting herself!" Elsa used force to utter the horribly phrase, as a result she ended up yelling, filling the entire bathroom – thankfully empty – with her screams.

Elsa was openly sobbing at this point, all the pain and rage that she has been bottling up inside spilling forth in an unending flow. With Rapunzel as her support, Elsa rode out the storm of emotions that had been brewing for the past few weeks. After a few short moments, Elsa's sobs subsided, leaving the blonde numb to the world around her.

"What else?"

Like an inhuman machine, Elsa spoke without hesitation, but also without emotion. Her last line of defense in the face of overwhelming emotional stress was to shut out her own emotions and return to the logic driven machine she was following _the break-up_.

"She has been cutting herself once every couple of days, I think."

Rapunzel, noticed how Elsa had closed herself off from her own emotions, but knew that this was the only way to get any answers from her blonde friend. She also knew that while this 'defense mechanism' had worked in the past, it would eventually fail, given the strength of the emotions she was trying to quarantine.

"She does it with a box cutter that she keeps hidden in her pencil case."

"She has always tried to hide it from us, from me …" Elsa's voice cracked at the tail end of her cold and detached statement. Elsa's mask was crumbling; she desperately tried to hold it together. Rapunzel simply watched on in pity.

Elsa released a shuddering breath, before continuing.

"S-she hides the scars underneath her gloves."

"But there is something else …" Elsa hesitated, proof that her emotions were worming their way back into her heart. Rapunzel gave her an encouraging and warm smile before nodding for her to continue.

"Beneath her gloves, her hands are covered in more scars, only these look to have healed years ago-" an involuntary whimper escaped her lips, the struggling blonde took a moment to compose herself and place the mask back on her emotions.

Before she could return to her emotionless façade, the bathroom door was flung open with such force that the door slammed against the wall and filled the tile lines room with deafening noise.

That was until the club music began poring through the now open door. Standing in the door, panting, was Silvia looking frantic and urgently around the bathroom. When she spotted Elsa and Rapunzel standing near the sinks, she rushed forward, grabbing both women by their arms and began dragging them towards the club.

Neither of the two girls attempted to ask what was going on that demanded their presence, but assumed it had something to do with the center of the club given how rowdy the crowd was as it cheered for whatever was occurring at its core.

After walking for what felt like an eternity, finally they reached their destination. Which was the center of the dance floor that held a sizable clearing, Elsa was puzzled as to why the dance floor would be cleared.

Once they finally stopped moving and Elsa was released from Suilvia's death grip, Elsa noticed that the music was extremely familiar. It was nothing like what the DJ had been playing all night, yet it still struck a nostalgic cord in her heart, she _knew_ this music from somewhere, but alas the origin escaped her. Kristoff, who was standing in front of Elsa with his back to her was blocking her line of sight to the rest of the dance floor, he was peering over his shoulder at her, seemingly contemplating something. Finally deciding that it was best to move, he did so, allowing Elsa to see the urban legend himself, Crimson, dancing a short ways away.

Elsa was shocked; she hadn't been able to catch another one of his performances since summer break a few months ago, and was eager to see his amazing skills once more. Elsa glanced around to see if her friends were just as excited as she was, but was met with each of her friends peering at her with faces filled with sadness, pain, and anxiety.

Thoroughly confused, Elsa turned back to the performance of a lifetime before her and noticed something extremely alarming. Crimson's movements were uncoordinated, unbalanced, and shaky. He was having trouble staying standing, and was falling multiple times.

At this display the crowd was openly 'boo-ing' him, as well as criticizing him to get off the dance floor. Even more alarming was the state of the water that lay in one giant puddle on the floor, the water underneath Crimson's feet were died a light pink that was steadily growing darker and redder.

Elsa traced the red-ish hue back to where is was dripping into the puddle, the red liquid was dripping from both of Crimson's arms, and upon closer inspection was seeping from Crimson's exposed forearms that were littered with horizontal slits, that each poured forth a torrent of red life. The sight was nauseating,

Elsa doubled over threatening to spill the contents of her stomach onto the floor at the sight of all that blood. Elsa whipped her head back to Kristoff who was standing just beside her with his arm draped over Suilvia's shaking shoulder. Kristoff was staring at the sight with tears in his eyes, while shaking his head. Eugene and Rapunzel were a short ways away, locked in bear hug while Rapunzel spoke into the taller man's ear; the look on Eugene's face was one of pure fear and terror.

Olaf and the female trio were all in a group hug with their backs to the fumbling Crimson, all four sets of shoulders were shaking in tandem. This reaction from her friends left Elsa even more confused, these were not the reactions people had when finding out that a stranger was cutting himself or herself. No this was the kind of reaction she expected them to have when she told them what Anna was do-

Elsa froze, her mind had glossed over a key detail of the performance in an attempt to save her psyche from irreparable damage, but now she remembered it.

Elsa slowly brought her face back to the ongoing performance on the dance floor, her eyes slowly coming to rest on a lock of hair that was sticking out from the side of Crimson's mask, the hair was almost as red as the mask and was braided haphazardly, a lone streak of white hair was waved through the hair and braid.

Elsa knew of only one person who had such a recognizable characteristic as that. In the wake of the tears that sprung forth, like a torrent, from her eyes, and the earth shattering pangs that struck both her head and heart that nearly knocked her unconscious on the spot, Elsa lost all ability to function and was left a shivering, stuttering, numb mess. Only one word thought ran through her head, before her world was swallowed by darkness.

_Anna?_

* * *

**End of Chapter 3**


	6. Chapter 4

**Pink Mist: Chapter 4**

* * *

Gerda was sitting in her favorite rocking chair by the smoldering fireplace in the library of her moderately large home. She was currently reading one of her favorite books while sipping from a cup of now cool tea, something she always did leading up to retiring to bed for the evening.

She was on the border of falling into the time-warping void she often entered when she really got into the book she was reading, but the strike of the massive grandfather clock that rested against the wall opposite the fireplace shocked her awake.

_Midnight? Already? It seems my habit of reading into the late hours of the night has stuck with me all these years._

The thought brought a smirk to her face and caused an airy chuckle to bubble up from her throat.

Gerda placed the ribbon bookmark onto the page she left off and closed the book, setting it down on the small table to her right. She stood and shuffled over to the fire, pouring what remained of her tea onto the embers, snuffing out their heat and adding them to the cool ash that had accumulated in the hearth.

She then proceeded to close the chimney via the metal lever on the wall, and swiftly left the room before the chill of darkness could bleed into her still warm clothes. She went about her usual bedtime routine: locking down the house, brushing her teeth, and taking a shower.

On her way out of the bathroom after her lukewarm shower, just the way she liked it, the older woman noticed something out of place on the bathroom sink. Sitting behind the faucet controls was an orange bottle, with a white cap and a label tapped across the side, on it read,

"Baker, Gerda - Warfarin."

What her blood thinning medication was doing out of its usual spot in the storage behind the mirror puzzled her.

_Perhaps I am finally going senile, I haven't had to take this since that clot I got in my leg a few years ago. What is it doing out? I didn't take it by accident did I?_

Gerda began to panic, until she remembered that a single accidental dose of the blood thinner was not something that could kill her, so long as her blood continued to clot and any incident that drew blood was swiftly dealt with appropriately she would be fine, at least until the drug left her system. Only in large doses would the medication wreck havoc on her body.

_I better throw this away, it would be bad to leave such a high risk medication out unattended …_

Gerda promptly picked up the half empty bottle of pills and deposited the entire thing in the trash. Satisfied that the danger was cleared she left the bathroom and made her way to her bedroom, which resided next to Anna's.

Anna almost always had the habit of staying up into the early hours of the morning before finally going to sleep, something that Gerda endlessly discouraged her against, but one night Anna had let slip that when she closed her eyes in a dark room she was reminded of her past, since then Gerda had ceased all effort to enforce a regular sleep schedule on the younger girl instead opting to let her sleep when she was most comfortable.

Which apparently was when the light of the sun could shine through her closed eyelids, thus driving off the evil darkness. Gerda had insisted on not looking in Anna's file, instead choosing to wait for Anna to come to her about the past that haunted the young girl. But Gerda kept a copy of the file hidden in a safe in her study.

Anna did not know about the file, mostly because Gerda feared that it would hurt the young redhead to know that all the pain and suffering she experienced growing up had a physical form and resided no less than 100 feet from where she slept.

When Gerda passed by her adopted daughter's room she was surprised to see that there was no light beneath the door.

Confused, Gerda knocked on the door seeking her goodnight hug that her and Anna always shared before the older woman would go to sleep. When her knuckles made contact with the solid wood door, it gave way under her light tap and swung inward. The sight that Gerda was met with nearly sent to fragile older woman to her knees, she grappled onto the doorframe to keep from falling down.

Anna's room was completely torn to shreds. Clothes were everywhere, her wardrobes lay face down on the floor, and its numerous shelves lay in pieces around the room. Anna's vanity, which used to belong to Gerda from when she was little, had its mirror shattered, the shards of razor sharp glass were scattered everywhere.

The only piece of furniture that remained pristine was the bed. Upon which rested a pile of pencils and markers haphazardly scattered across the bed. The pencil case itself was zipped closed on the nightstand beside the bed. That one detail stuck out as odd to Gerda.

_In all this destruction, why is the pencil case the one thing that was left organized? If they were in such a rush as to dump its contents on the bed, why take the time to zip it closed again?_

Gerda made her way around the shards of glass that lines the floor, around the bed and to the nightstand. With a shaky hand she reached out for the pencil case, lifting it. She found that is was heavier than she thought it would be, signifying that there was something inside it.

Cautiously, she opened the pencil case and reached in with her free hand, grasping what resided within and pulling it out slowly. Gerda was initially alarmed when she registered cold the surface of the object but quickly identified it as metal. She put the empty pencil case down and turned on the lamp that resided on the small table next to her, placing the object under the light.

The shriek of horror that came from Gerda could be heard from all around the house, the older woman immediately released the object in her hand and it fell to the table.

On the table, sat a box cutter that had a blade that was completely covered in a vibrant red crusty substance. Gerda brought her hand to the blade, scraping off some of the red crust onto her fingernail. Brining the substance up to her face, she took a small whiff of the substance, but could not identify it.

Left with no other option, her tongue darted out to taste the mystery material.

Instantly, the older woman tasted a sickening hint of iron in her mouth, causing her mind to race in fear ad terror.

_Blood? Oh god … Anna?!_

* * *

Elsa's world had become one completely foreign and strange to her, she tried to lift her arms but found an invisible force was holding them down, making them impossibly heavy. The same went for her legs, always did the invisible force bring them back against the wall she was apparently leaning against, but at the same time she could feel no floor beneath her feet.

Panic swept over her, _Where is the floor? Am I floating? Am I going to fall?_ Her hazy mind could not comprehend the situation, she lurched forward only to have that same invisible force, that was keeping her pinned to the wall, push her back.

As her head traveled back to where is resided, against the hard wall something soft met the back of her head, keeping it several inches from the hard surface behind her. Elsa heard a noise; it was extremely muffled and sounded like trumpet being played under water.

_If only Anna could hear me now, she would shame me for even thinking about submerging one of favorite instruments …_

The sound that resembled a trumpet steadily grew clearer and clearer as the haze of unconsciousness slowly lifted from her mind.

It was not long before she realized that the sound was not in fact a musical brass instrument, but the unusually high pitched voice of her childhood friend Rapunzel. She was repeating something over and over, but what she was repeating was lost on the blonde.

_What is she saying? 'Ella'? Who's Ella? Oh, she's saying Elsa. Who's Elsa? Wait, that's my name!_

The disorientated blonde was coming back to her senses a bit too quickly, her mind rushed with thoughts, _What am I doing on the floor? What was I doing before? We came to the club to relax … then … What happened after we got here? Why can't I remember?_

"Elsa …"

The broken voice of her best friend snapped Elsa out of her thoughts, she looked up to see the brunette hovering over her, both hands holding her head on top of the brunettes legs that were acting as a pillow of sorts.

Elsa tried to pick her head up, but the brunette above her kept her in place. The blonde peered looked back to her friend to question what she was doing but stopped. Tears were freely falling from Rapunzel's already red eyes, the droplets fell onto Elsa's face and hair, but the blonde couldn't care less, right now the sight of her best friend crying dominated her attention.

"Rapunzel, what wrong?"

"I-we thought you hurt your head when you fell, we were worried you might not wake up. I couldn't stand to lose two friends in one night!"

"'Two friends'? What are you talking abo-" Before Elsa could finish her question, a hoarse and agitated male voice shouted from a place nearby.

"Don't you dare even say those words! She's not dead yet! Help is on the way!"

The look in Rapunzel's eyes clearly showed that she wanted to believe the male voice, but traces of defeat betrayed that she had already given up hope. Elsa was thoroughly confused and spoke up to grab her depressed friends attention.

"What are you talking about, Rapunzel?"

The brunette opened her mouth, only to close it again. This repeated several times before she lowered her head and began to sob. In the process her hands released their grip on Elsa's head and cradled her now tear stained face.

Elsa, finally free, lifted herself off the ground and spun to look at Rapunzel. Now in an upright position Elsa got a good look around to room. They were on the dance floor of the club, the previous mass of people that were crowding the club were now silent and stoic as they stared at the center of the club.

Each of their faces were etched in a mixture of worry and curiosity. Some of them were on their phones talking animatedly into the receiver. Elsa swore she saw each of them give the name of the club to whomever they were talking with.

Rapunzel on the other hand was closing in on herself and refused to let Elsa in. Elsa would have pushed further and drag out of Rapunzel whatever was bother in her, but at the back of Elsa's mind she knew that answer was close by.

The blonde stood up from her crouching position and spun on her heals to look all the way around the club. The previous ring of the crowd was being maintained by the crowd's own lack of movement. The attention of the crowd caught Elsa's attention and stuck her as odd. They were all staring at the same place on the dance floor. Elsa followed their line of sight until she found two large bodies hunched over in the center of the floor.

Elsa immediately recognized the two of them as Kristoff and Eugene. Confused, she began to slowly shuffle towards them. Having been unconscious for an unknown amount of time had caused her legs to fall asleep and thus made walking difficult.

As she approached the two men their voices began to enter audible ranges of volume to Elsa's ears. Kristoff's hoarse and groggily voice was the first to be heard by the approaching blonde.

"Damnit! Why wont this blood stop?! Putting pressure on wounds is supposed to stop the blood! Isn't it?!"

"How am I supposed to know?! I specialize in information security not first aid! I'm not a doctor!"

"Shit! Shit! Shit! She's lost so much blood. Why does she have so many cuts and why are they so deep?! Scratch that, why does she even have cuts on her arm?!" Eugene, who was keeping tabs on her vital signs while periodically checking to see if the body below them was still breathing, looked up at her friend with sorrowful eyes.

"You see how those cuts sort of spiral up her forearm? The ones near the wrist are aligned with the palm of her hand, but the ones further up line up with the crook of her elbow?" Eugene was using the explanation to help distract his friend from giving up hope on the life of the body just below them.

"Yeah?"

"Well one of the only ways to get that kind of pattern is if the cuts were inflicted on the arm while the palm was facing towards her …" The confused look on Kristoff's face indicated that he didn't understand.

"Look …" Eugene held up is hand in front of him, the palm of his hand was parallel with the ceiling and facing upwards.

"See how if you drew a line from the center of my wrist to the crook of my elbow you would have a straight line?" Kristoff nodded.

Eugene then rotated his hand, keeping his elbow and bicep stationary. His palm was now facing sideways and his hand was perpendicular with the ceiling.

"Now, if you had that very same line it would now curve around my forearm. This is because the two bones in the forearm can pivot and rotate the wrist and hand without requiring the elbow to rotate as well, of course this causes the skin and tissue that is around the wrist to rotate while the skin above the crook of the elbow remains stationary. Hence the curve."

Kristoff, half paying attention to Eugene's explanation due to the girl who was bleeding out just below him, nodded in understanding.

Elsa was listening to the whole conversation but was unable to piece together what they were talking about. She had finally reached the two boys, but their postures obscured what they were leaning over.

Fed up with being left in the dark, Elsa grasped Kristoff's shoulder and shoved him aside, he fell away with little to no resistance, but maintained adequate pressure on the bleeding wrists in his hands.

Elsa's heart stopped dead in her chest, her breath all but halted, her vision threatened to black out once more, and her head buzzed painfully.

There lay, pale as a corpse, a bleeding, _dying_ Anna.

Immediately Elsa fell to her knees, clambering to grab ahold of the unconscious redhead, but the strong arm of Eugene kept her at bay. Elsa whipped her head to the side to look at him and question what he was doing. Before she could voice her outrage, Eugene grabbed Elsa by the shoulders and dragged her to the side, well away from Anna.

She fought with everything she had to stay close to the redhead, even resorting to kicking Eugene, and scratching the arms that held her back. This futile struggle continued until Elsa realized that there were several new bodies crowding around the unconscious redhead. They carried a red duffle bag and had a stretcher in tow.

Elsa quickly identified these people as EMT's and stopped fighting Eugene, who had pulled her out of their way so they could have unhindered access to the redhead.

Elsa knew that she could do nothing to help Anna or the EMT's, but nonetheless she felt the insatiable urge to be by Anna's side. She knew Eugene wouldn't let her near the frantically working Emergency Medical Technicians, out of fear that she would jeopardize Anna's chances of survival by getting in their way. So she stopped struggling until Eugene released her.

The moment his arms dropped away from her shoulders, the blonde lunged forward. She ran to Anna and the still working EMT's. With every step she took their fast-paced communication became clearer and clearer in her pounding ears.

"B.P. is low, heart rate is going through the roof! She's got a fast weak pulse, she's lost too much blood. Harrison! Stop that blood, now!" 'Harrison' was apparently the EMT who was currently putting all his weight on Anna's right wrist. Beneath his gloved hands was a cloth that was very quickly staining a deep maroon. Harrison huffed in frustration before speaking.

"Shit, Nelson! I need a new pad this one is no good! Something isn't right! Her blood's not clotting! Nelson check her person for a Medical ID! She must have a history of embolism, heart disease, or some other disorder and is on an anticoagulant!"

The other EMT, Nelson, gave his coworker the clean pad before patting down the young girl below her for anything that would contain her medical history or ID. When she found nothing she looked back at Harrison and shook his head.

Harrison understood immediately and cursed violently.

"Fuck! Roberts! She needs a coagulant! She's not going make it unless we stop this blood!"

The third and final EMT, Roberts, had switched from checking Anna's vitals to mimicking Harrison, by placing all of his weight on Anna's other bleeding wrist. Roberts nodded in agreement and turned to Nelson, who was awaiting orders from her two senior coworkers.

"Nelson, go in my bag and get the coagulant!"

Nelson looked back in panic and confusion. Harrison picked up on her panic and explained further what Roberts failed to.

"It'll be a small bag labeled Celox, grab two." Nelson nodded in understanding and lunged for Robert's bag, searching through the bag with extreme haste.

She became even more frantic when she didn't find it. Her head whipped around to her coworkers, sheer terror engraved on her face. Harrison spoke soothingly, with a surprisingly calm demeanor.

"Relax, take a breath. If you panic, you lose focus. If you lose focus, she will die. She is relying on you right now. Keep calm and move efficiently, if you don't find what you're looking for in the main compartment check the pockets on the outside."

Nelson took a breath and calmed down, she couldn't afford to waste time looking through the bag haphazardly. He scoured the bag's exterior until he found the small bags of the coagulant, quickly opening them both and handing the opened packages to Harrison and Roberts.

They both lifted one hand off of Anna's wrists to grab the Celox, both placed even more pressure with the last hand on her wrists. They poured the sand-like substance on Anna's still bleeding wrists. Applying pressure once more, they waited. It took less than a full minute for the bleeding to stop.

All three EMT's sighed in relief, before dressing the redhead's wrists with clean pads and gauze. Nelson turned back to Robert's bag to reorganize it as Harrison and Roberts prepped the girl for transfer to the stretcher.

As she turned she noticed a woman standing far closer than the rest of the crowd, she was a few feet from her. Her eyes were glued to the unconscious redhead and filled with filled with crushing despair and worry. Nelson noticed the look on Elsa's face and instantly realized she knew their patient.

The novice EMT stood and approached the blonde before addressing her. Her voice snapped the blonde out of her daze and forced her eyes to leave the redhead and focus on her.

"Do you know her?" Elsa nodded, her eyes darted back to the redhead who was now securely in the stretcher. Nelson expected the blonde's tension to ease when she saw that her friend was in no immediate danger, but if anything the blonde seemed to grow even more worried. Puzzled, the EMT spoke up.

"Do you know if she has any past history with blood clots? Or if she's on any medication? Like blood thinners?"

Elsa shook her head in the negative, but that didn't answer the question. Elsa realized this and cleared her dry throat to give a verbal answer.

"As far as I know, she has no such history … Why? Does that have something to do with why she was bleeding so much?"

"Sort'of … Her blood wasn't clotting at all, meaning she either has some sort of disorder or that she is on a blood thinner."

"But she doesn't take any medications, and I never-" Elsa didn't get to finish her thought. Roberts cursed loudly, interrupting the blonde and startling Nelson.

"Shit! Nelson! Call the hospital; tell 'em we have a high risk, priority 1 patient on the way. Tell 'em to set a blood test on standby for our arrival and to prep for immediate transfusion! Also, tell 'em to order and INR test the moment we arrive, as well as Vitamin K for emergency administration!"

Nelson snapped into action, dialing the Emergency Department and relaying everything she was told to the staff of the ED.

Roberts was clearing the crowd for a path while Harrison pushed Anna on the stretcher through the clearing. The moment she ended the call more orders from her coworkers were fired at him, this time from Harrison.

"Nelson! Here!" The older EMT held up his duffle bag with one arm, for Nelson to take. "In my bag find the vial of Vitamin K and the sterile syringes!" Nelson did as she was told, but all the while talking to Harrison.

"What wrong with her? I thought she was stable?" She asked, all the while scouring the bag for the necessary materials. She started with the outside of the bag first this time, but found nothing so she unzipped the main compartment and began digging through the contents.

"She was until _that_ started!" Harrison pointed to the redhead's unconscious face, a small trickle of blood was running down from her nostril.

Nelson was confused, _Why does a nose bleed mean that she needs to be bumped up to priority 1?_

Harrison picked up the confused look, again.

"If this girl is experiencing abnormally thin blood, then a nose bleed is indicative that there is internal bleeding occurring in her nasal cavities! And if she's bleeding in her nose, then only god know where else in her body she could be bleeding! If the capillaries in her lungs start to leak she will drown in her own blood! We need to get her back to the hospital, check her INR, get new, not-thin blood into her system and give her vitamin K to help her blood clot. The longer we wait the more of a chance there is that she will either suffocate on her own blood, or die of blood loss due to bleeding into her internal cavities!"

In the time is took Harrison to explain everything to Nelson, she had found both the vial and the syringes. Harrison nodded in approval and grabbed the smaller, younger, female EMT with his free hand. Using his adrenalin fueled strength; Harrison lifted Nelson onto the stretcher with Anna.

The younger EMT was now straddling the unconscious redhead, causing a slight blush to creep onto her face. Harrison noticed and bellowed at the stunned EMT.

"Not the time for that Nelson! Inject the vitamin K into her arm, but do only the minimum dose. We don't know how much she needs and if we inject too much we run the risk creating an embolism! Take your time, don't rush! Be as accurate as you can, her life is in your hands now!" Nelson nodded, her embarrassment fading away in the wake of the situation she now found herself in.

Elsa, who was quickly following behind Harrison, Nelson and Roberts, completely unnoticed felt her heart clench in agonizing pain at every mention of what Anna was facing at this moment.

Only the undeniable desire see Anna and hold her hand kept her conscious and following the EMTs.

When the EMT's finally reached the ambulance which was parked outside, Elsa still silently following them without being noticed, they flung the doors open and piled inside. Roberts hopped into the driver's seat and started up the vehicle. Harrison pushed the stretcher, with Nelson still on top into the back of the ambulance, before hopping in himself.

In his haste he did not even notice the blonde woman approaching the ambulance before she hopped into the vehicle and closed the other door. With pure adrenaline pumping through his veins he held no patients for this unexpected intruder.

"What the hell are you doing?! Get the fuck out!" He opened the back door and reached across his patient to shove the strange woman out of the ambulance. But the woman held firm, her hands were clasped around his unconscious patient's hand. The blonde woman's eyes were screwed shut, but tears flowed unabated down her face. Harrison was so furious he nearly missed the abnormal beat he felt under his fingers, which was currently pressing against the redhead's neck feeling her pulse. He checked and rechecked her pulse, swearing that her heart rate picked up drastically since the blonde stranger grasped her hand.

Nelson recognized the blonde in the wake of Harrison's silence and immediately spoke up, "She knows our patient! Let her stay she can help calm her down if she wakes up!"

Harrison glared angrily at his novice coworker, before reaching out and slamming the ambulance door shut once more, this time with Elsa still inside.

"Fine! She can stay," He pointed a sweaty finger at the shocked blonde, "But you do everything we tell you to! Got it?" Elsa nodded vehemently.

"Good, for now, keep holding her hand." _Her pulse is most likely due to the vitamin K, but I'm not willing to risk it. If she can improve this girl's chances of survival by even a fraction of a percent then I am all for her staying._

Harrison did a once over on the blonde beauty that sat across from him; he instantly identified her as one of the most beautiful people he had ever seen. He also saw how this woman was clutching at his redheaded patient, causing a new motivation to course through his veins.

Harrison had always forbade loved one's from riding in the ambulance with patients because he couldn't stomach the feeling of having to work on a patient when he held that patients life in his hand, in front of their loved with this pair, he saw how much this redhead meant to the blonde and felt like he would stop at nothing to reunite them.

_You are not dying here, Red! You are not dying on me, Nelson, or your girlfriend!_

In a surge of urgency, Harrison reached towards the front of the ambulance and slammed his fist into the wall separating the rear compartment with the driving compartment, three times. The response was immediate. Roberts heard the banging and floored the gas pedal.

The ambulance lurched forward, the engine dropping down a gear to provide more power to accelerate its burdened frame. The world around them became a blur as they sped towards the nearby hospital.

* * *

**End of Chapter 4**


	7. Chapter 5

**A small note to those who do remember this story before the re-write. If memory serves I took down Pink Mist at Chapter 5, meaning the next one that would have gone up was Chapter 6 (the numbers assigned by FF aside, because those numbers include Chapter 0 and that short placeholder before it). For those of you who care, the total number of chapters for this work more than doubles what this work was at before the removal. I thought some of you who have returned to this work would be interested in knowing how many new chapters I have written so you can look forward to it.**

**Other than that, nothing to report. So, enjoy.**

* * *

**Pink Mist – Chapter 5**

* * *

"Hey, good work out there … I heard from Roberts, sounds like a rough first night out." The head nurse of the Emergency Department sat down next to Nelson, who was sitting on a bench in the hall just outside of the ED wing. The redheaded patient that they had brought to the ED had just been stabilized and was out of immediate danger.

"Yeah … the attending physician said that the wounds on her arms were … s-self-inflicted. The lab results just got back too, she ingested a large dose of Coumadin … a blood thinner. She … she was trying to kill herself!" Nelson was fighting back tears at this point.

She glanced a little ways away to the redheaded patient's room. Sitting in a chair next to the unconscious girl was the gorgeous blonde woman from before, her face was stained with tears and she was holding the patient's hand in a death grip. It had taken several of the larger male nurses to subdue her when the staff tried to separate her from the patient. Now that she was with the redhead, she gave no signs of ever letting her go again. Nelson averted her gaze from the pair of girls, and brought her hand up to her temple to massage away the migraine that was quickly manifesting. The female EMT took a shaky breath before continuing to speak.

"How can someone do that?" The head nurse, who was an older man named Kai, could only shake his head. "How could that she do that to herself? How could she do that to her friend? And what the hell was she doing in a club? That's the part I just don't get … if she wanted to kill herself why go to a public place? Why not just let herself bleed out in a bathtub or something?!" The young woman lost her ability to control her emotions, she was furious with the redhead for hurting not only herself but also the blonde and her family.

She couldn't understand what could drive someone to do that to him or herself. Her confusion turned to frustration, and frustration to anger. She nearly walked into the patient's room to give the unconscious girl a piece of her mind, but was stopped when Kai placed a hand on her shoulder. The older man spoke in a sober tone, one that told the EMT of his vast experience in this line of work.

"Sometimes, when someone is moving towards taking their own life, a small portion of them wants to live. Some part of them, deep inside, doesn't want to die. So, sometimes we see suicidal patients who made their attempt in an open and public space. This is because that small part of them drove them to seek out a populated place, in the hopes that someone might see that they are hurting, and step into the save them. I like to believe that everyone wants to live and that no one wants to die, I can only hope that this girl chose to go to the club in the hopes that she would be saved … from herself." Kai stood from the bench and moved to peer into the redhead's room through the window. The blonde who was half lying on the patient, half sitting in the chair was fast asleep, along with the patient. Both appeared to be sleeping peacefully, despite the events that occurred earlier in the night.

"Remember … Nelson, you don't know this girl's story. You don't know what has driven her to this state. There are people out there that have suffered more than you or I could ever imagine. I pray this girl's past isn't that grim, but in this line of work you can never know …" Nelson let go of her anger and confusion, Kai was right. She didn't know this girl; she didn't know the circumstances of her attempted suicide. The EMT resolved herself to get to know this patient whom she knew nothing about, she would do her utmost as a health care provider to ensure that this girl never place herself in this kind of situation again.

* * *

"Please, Officer you have to find her. She's never done anything like this before … there was so much blood … please! You need to find her! You have to!" Gerda almost instantly became hysterical after finding the state of Anna's room. She immediately called the police, but was met with indifference.

"Ma'am, I need you to remain calm. I cannot issue a missing persons report unless she has been gone for at least 48 hours. From what you've told me your daughter has only been gone for a couple of hours. I am sorry, but you must wait until 48 hours have passed before we can do anything about it." The police officer hung up the phone. Gerda was left speechless, that was until her phone rang again. The caller-ID registered an unknown number. Thinking it was Anna, Gerda picked up in an instant.

"Anna?!"

"No, ma'am. This is the police officer you just spoke to my name is Tom. While I cannot help you as a police officer because your daughter does not meet the criteria of 'missing,' I've decided to checkout early today. I have a couple close friends on the force who know what it means to lose a son or daughter. I will ask one of them to send out a BOLO on your daughter and I'll ask another to check all the local hospitals and clinics. I will be coming over to your house to investigate your daughter's room, there may be clues that indicated where she was headed. I'm sorry that I cannot do this action as an officer, I will only be able to help you as a citizen with police experience …" Gerda understood what Tom was doing for her, he was putting is career on the line to help her find Anna. Tears began to well up in Gerda's eyes, before her throat could restrict as pure elation bubbled up from within her, she squeaked out in a small voice,

"Thank you!" Tom, the now off-duty police officer, could be heard standing up from his chair and putting a jacket on.

"Ma'am, I'm going to need your address one more time."

* * *

"_Anna! Please stop! Don't do this!" Elsa screamed at the tops of her lungs. She didn't know how but she found herself, and Anna, on the top of an impossibly tall cliff. The ground below was obscured from sight by a dense layer of fog and mist. Even without being able to discern the height of the drop, Elsa knew that a fall from cliff's edge would surely kill her. Yet, Anna was standing precariously close to the edge, her toes were hanging off in the wind. _

_The redhead had been lying next to the blonde, but when Elsa moved to touch the younger girl she recoiled as if the blonde was the plague. The two girl's made eye contact for the briefest of moments, Elsa could see the extent of the emotions swirling just below the depths of her turquoise eyes. There was rage, petrifying fear, anguish, and unimaginable pain. Elsa's own heart broke when she saw that everyone of those emotions were being direct at Anna. She hated herself, she was afraid of herself, and she had been subject to too much pain to be able to recover. _

_Anna nearly vaulted off the cliff in one swift motion had Elsa not called out to her when she did. Anna turned her head to look at the blonde. Tears cascaded down Anna's face. The broken redhead opened her mouth to speak to Elsa._

"_Please … just let me die. I can't stand this anymore!" Elsa sprung into action, this had been the first time Anna ever mentioned anything from her past, she wasn't letting this opportunity pass. The blonde rushed at Anna, grabbing her by the wrists and dragging her back away from the cliff's edge. When they were away from danger, Elsa spoke again._

"_Anna … please let me in. Just tell me what's bothering you. Maybe I can help?" Elsa sounded more hopeful than encouraging. The blonde felt warmth seep into her hands, which were still clasped around Anna's wrists, the blonde took the sensation as an indicator that Anna was warming up from their contact. She didn't see nor feel the blood that began to poor from the younger girl's wrists. The viscous red liquid stained her hands, and fell into a growing puddle on the ground._

"_You can't help … no one can. Unless you can help me never blink ever again, then you can never help me …"_

"_Are you afraid the blink? I don't understand Anna, please explain me what is wrong."_

_The redhead broke down in sobs, her broken voice was but a whisper. _

"_Can you take away the darkness? Can you take away _my _darkness? Can you eliminate all darkness from the world? No? Then get out of my way!" The redhead shoved the blonde off her. Elsa could feel that same warmth on her hands, but she wasn't holding Anna's wrists anymore. Looking down the blonde saw her hands were covered in a vibrant red liquid that seamed to coat her hands in a thick, viscous layer. Panicking, Elsa desperately scrapped at the liquid, trying to rid her hands of the stuff, but to no avail. Every attempt at shedding the substance resulted in more liquid falling to the ground, but left Elsa's hands no closer to being clean. The blonde struggled with the seemingly infinite layer of blood on her hands, until she realized that she had forgotten about Anna. Snapping her head up to where she has last seen the redhead, Elsa only saw empty space. Anna was gone. Elsa's eyes darted to the spot on the cliff where Anna once stood, her heart clenching in terror when she saw that the girl was now sitting on the ledge._

"_Anna!" Else took one step towards the girl, Anna edged a little further off the cliff._

"_Anna … please don't do this! I … I need you … I-I ... I lo-" Anna dropped off the ledge._

_Elsa was left in utter shock in the wake of Anna jumping off the cliff in suicide. Her world came to a screeching halt, her heart shattering in the process. She couldn't imagine going on with her life without Anna. She couldn't picture facing her friends again after having failed to protect Anna from her self. Elsa's body became numb; she could feel herself walking towards the very same ledge that Anna fell from. She didn't even bat an eyelash as she felt herself walk straight off the edge of the cliff. The feeling of free falling sent a jolt through Elsa that caused her entire body to jump in surprise._

* * *

The memory of free falling jolted Elsa awake, she found herself in exactly where she remembered falling asleep, next to Anna in the hospital. Looking at the redhead caused a surge of memories to fill the blonde's head, memories of the dream she just had. Elsa felt her heart constrict in pain at the prospect of seeing Anna die. Hell, after seeing the girl so close to death at the club nearly stole Elsa's consciousness from her. Had Anna passed away form her injuries … Elsa couldn't even finish the thought.

Just then, a man in a white coat stepped into the doorway. His hands were under the sterilizing foam dispenser that could be found outside of every room. He took the foam and quickly rubbed it into his palms and back of his hands as well, before shaking them to quickly air-dry them. The doctor then knocked on the open door to announce his presence. Elsa who had been watching him from the corner of her eye so to keep her head focused on Anna, turned to look at him fully. The doctor was an older man, in his late forties, early fifties. His hair had grey accents, and his build was large. Elsa immediately recognized him as one of the stronger staff members that was called to subdue her when Anna was first wheeled into the ED.

"Hello, again. I see that you are awake. Can I have a moment of your time? I have a couple of things that you should know concerning Anna." Elsa almost could predict what they were going to tell her, but nodded in response.

"So first off, the injuries she sustain to her wrists appear to be self-inflicted." Elsa's lack of a reaction caused the doctor's eyebrows to shoot up. "You're not surprised by this? Does she have a history of hurting herself?" Again, Elsa nodded. "I see, in that case, let me ask you … does she have a history of drug abuse?" Elsa cleared her throat to speak.

"No, as far as I know she doesn't. Why is that important?"

"Well, we found a lot of a certain drug in her system … Coumadin. Also, known as Warfarin. This drug is often given to older patients for thromboembolism, or to those who are at risk of experiencing a blood clot. Essentially this dug makes your blood really thin so it can squeeze around blood clots and prevents the blood from clotting itself. One of the greatest risks while taking this medication is the risk of profuse bleeding. It is our belief that Anna willingly took this drug then cut her own wrists … in an attempt to commit suicide. We had a local psychologist look at Anna's case. She said that the fact that Anna sought out a pubic place might indicate that she was hoping for someone to save her."

Elsa was fighting back tears at this point, hearing someone explain Anna's actions hurt more than she thought it would. The doctor wasn't done; he still had to announce the staff and his plan for caring for Anna moving forward.

"I realize that you are pained by this news, but I regret to inform you that we must take certain … _precautions_ in anticipation of Anna's awakening. We will need to bind her hands and legs to the bed-" Elsa immediately opened her mouth to protest, but was silenced when the doctor raised his hand to indicate that he wasn't done. "If she were to wake up and immediately seek to complete her suicide, there are too many things in this room that could serve effective for that endeavor. For example, if Anna were to wake up she very well could take the IV in her arm out and use the sharp needle to inflict more harm on herself. In my experience patients who realize that they failed to complete suicide often become very distraught and seek out ways to finish what they started sooner rather than later. If she does wake up, make sure that she remains calm and try to get her to realize that life is worth living."

Elsa understood in an instant what she had to do. Anna had given up on her life, Elsa needed to instill a new meaning into the younger girl. The only problem for the blonde was how to go about doing that?

* * *

The ringing of a cell phone cut through the silence that had settled over the Baker home. Tom, who was combing through Anna's wrecked room, immediately answered in the hopes that it was one of his colleagues that had found Mrs. Baker's daughter. Then number on the caller ID matched that of the precinct.

"This is Tom … yes … yes … last name is Baker-" Gerda, who was standing outside Anna's room, perked up and entered the bedroom when she heard Tom utter her last name. "… one second, let me ask the mother." Tom turned around to address Gerda.

"Does your daughter have any identifying characteristics? A birth mark for example?" Gerda didn't even have to think about it.

"Yes, she … went through a _traumatic_ event in her childhood, she has scars all along her arms … there are a lot on her hands, arms and back … a couple stretch all the way up to her shoulders and down her back …" Tom leveled an intimidating glare at Gerda, who immediately threw up her hands in defense. "She was admitted to a rehab facility shortly after that _event_ and I adopted her only recently. The monsters that did that to her are locked in prison." Tom's rigid posture released its tension at Gerda's explanation.

"So she has scars on her hands, arms and shoulders?" Gerda nodded. Tom brought the phone back up to his ear. "You hear that? … The girl has red hair and scars on her hands, stretching up to her shoulders … No, its not child abuse … Yes, I'll get the full story …" Tom looked back at the older woman, the sincerity of her worry was very clear, "… yes, we can trust her."

* * *

"Elsa!" Hearing her name being called caused the blonde to shoot up out of the chair. She had returned to sleeping next to Anna, but now was leaning over the younger girl. Elsa's heart was beating in rapid anticipation, but when she noticed that the redhead was till unconscious her elation disappeared. She thought she heard the redhead call out to her.

"Elsa …" Her eyes snapped to the door, standing there were her friends all still in the clothes that she had last seen them in. They must have come straight from the club. Rapunzel was at the front of the group, her face looked wet, like she had just been crying. The rest of the group wasn't looking much better. Rapunzel made her way around the bed and pulled Elsa into a crushing hug. Elsa hugged back, but less strongly. The brunette took in a shaky breath to address her blonde friend.

"Elsa … what did the doctors say?" Elsa's throat was dry and scratchy from all her crying, as a result her voice was hoarse and painful sounding when she responded.

"T-they said that Anna's wounds were self-inflicted …" Eugene's jaw tensed, his hands balled into white knuckled fists. Elsa heard him mutter to himself, "_Damnit … I knew it."_ Elsa didn't comment.

"They said they're going to have to restrain her, so that if she wakes up she won't be able to … try again …" Kristoff stepped forward, separating himself from Sulvia.

"Did they say why she was bleeding so much? When Eugene and I were putting pressure on her wrists the blood just kept coming … did they mention her having a condition or something?" Elsa nodded her head.

"They said that she took a lot of … some drug. _War_-something …" Elsa couldn't recall the name of the medication that nearly stole Anna from her.

"Warfarin?" Rapunzel supplied. Elsa nodded, before attempting to continue her explanation, but her voice caught in her throat. Rapunzel stepped in to finish for her.

"Warfarin is a blood thinning agent, it makes it so that your blood can squeeze past potential clots and prevents the formation of future clots. Consequently, if you cut yourself your blood won't clot and you'll bleed continuously … like Anna did in the club." How Rapunzel knew so much about the drug, no one knew, but now wasn't the time to challenge her either.

Elsa made no sign to continue talking, so Rapunzel continued to ask questions to fill the silence.

"Did they say anything else?" Elsa shook her head. "Did they day anything about her condition now? Like … is she out of danger? Or is there a chance she may not wake up?" Elsa shook her head again, but the lack of a relieved sigh made the blonde realize that she didn't answer the question.

"No, the doctors didn't mention that. They were talking about her waking up as something that will _eventually_ happen, so I assume they are not concerned about her not waking up. But … I just … I just don't know …"

Elsa began sobbing, hard. Rapunzel wrapped her up in a hug and sat her down in her chair. After trying to soothe the blonde for a few minutes, with little to no success, Rapunzel resorted to her last idea. The brunette picked up the unconscious Anna's hand and placed it in the blondes shaking ones. The sensation of the redhead's skin on her own instantly soothed the blonde. She began stroking the freckled hand as her breathing evened out. Elsa very quickly lost herself in the feel of Anna's skin on her own, Rapunzel saw Elsa's eyes lose focus as a sign to leave. She quickly shooed the rest of the gang out of the room before leaving herself. Just as she closed the door, the brunette heard Elsa whisper in a broken voice, "_please, Anna … wake up … I l- … please wake up._"

The brunette's heart broke at Elsa's near confession.

* * *

**End of Chapter 5**


	8. Chapter 6

**Alright, so this is the start of the new stuff. Its a little on the short side so do forgive me. **

**I have nothing else to report, so enjoy.**

* * *

**Pink Mist – Chapter 6**

* * *

Mornings no longer held the same allure for Elsa as they had before Anna's attempted suicide. So when the rays of the sun streaked through the window of her dorm, she cursed the universe for making the sun so bright so early in the day.

To Elsa, waking up meant going to class or studying or going about her normal life, without Anna. At least when asleep Elsa would be graced with Anna in her dreams, but every morning she was reminded that her beloved redhead was in a coma in the hospital.

The blood loss that Anna experienced resulted in some cranial damage due to not enough oxygen reaching her brain. As a result, Anna has remained unconscious for the past 2 weeks.

The doctors are optimistic about her awakening, but they always remind her about the possibility that she won't ever wake again.

When Gerda found out about Anna being in a coma, she took some time off from teaching to spend time with Elsa. The two of them talked about everything that has happened up until this point.

Gerda retold how she first met Anna and reiterated everything she had been told by the rehab facility staff. Elsa would have cried at the revelation that Anna had spent a decade without ever speaking due to trauma, had she not exhausted herself of her tears already.

Every morning Elsa wakes up and plays another piece of music that Anna made. She is borrowing Gerda's CD album from her office. Every piece she has heard so far has made her heart ache.

She longs to hold Anna, to tell her she never has to suffer again, to tell her that she is loved, that she will never be alone again.

Elsa can now openly admit that she loves Anna.

She couldn't admit it until she started listening to Anna's music. She realized that around the time the two of them started hanging out Anna's music became so much brighter and more uplifting. The tones were happy and tranquil. She realized that she made Anna happy and that Anna made her happy in return.

Elsa had recently run out of CD's of Anna's music, and had now resorted to playing her favorites on loop. Gerda had removed the very first CD from the album, claiming that the piece on that CD was special.

Today, Gerda had offered tell Elsa everything about Anna's past and her time before the rehabilitation facility. Gerda invited her to her home for this reveal, but the gravity in Gerda's voice gave Elsa a chill through the phone. Hanging in the silence between sentences, Elsa felt as if gaining access to this information would require a sacrifice on her part.

Elsa was prepared to sacrifice anything to know. She would gladly give up anything she could to get even a little bit closer to understanding and knowing Anna.

* * *

Elsa didn't hesitate when she reached the door to the Baker residence, and knocked immediately.

Gerda opened the door before she even finished her knock, as if she had been waiting at the door for the blonde. The elderly woman had bags under her eyes, clearly due to a lack of a decent night's sleep. Elsa wasn't looking too much better, but at least she could cover most of her stress with make-up.

Gerda let out a groggily voice that betrayed just how much she had been crying lately.

"Elsa, please come in."

Elsa followed the elderly woman into the house without a word.

Recent events prevented both of them from feeling up for superficial small talk, so they only spoke up when absolutely necessary.

Gerda led Elsa to the small sound room that the elder woman had installed for Anna to compose and play her music without disturbing guests or neighbors. The sound proof room had several speakers all around the room, as well as a soundboard on one side to control each speaker's output.

Elsa could easily see the redheaded girl sitting on one of the speakers, fiddling with a passage of music on her laptop. All the while with music booming through the speaker, sending pleasant vibrations through her as she felt the music as she composed it.

Elsa approached one of the speakers in the center of the room. It was as large as a filing cabinet, but only came up to her mid thigh, making it perfect for sitting on. The blonde cautiously lowered herself onto the speaker, before releasing a relieved sigh when it supported her weight.

Gerda was staring at Elsa. A mix of surprise, sadness, and nostalgia filled her eyes. The elder woman took a moment the wipe the unshed tears from her eyes, before speaking up in a hushed voice.

"Anna always used to sit there … it was her favorite spot." Elsa felt a twinge of anger spark inside her. Before she could stop herself she lashed out at Gerda with words filled with venom.

"This _is_ her favorite spot, and she always _does_ sit here! … she told me …" Elsa's mind fell into the past, on one of her and Anna's dates, although back then she didn't have the courage to admit what they were doing was dating.

* * *

_Elsa and Anna were sitting inside a café in town. Elsa had finally worked up the courage to invite the redhead out for a weekend get together. Anna happily agreed. This was their first time alone in each other's company and Elsa was intent on learning as much as there was to know about the redhead._

"_So, Anna … tell me! What do you like to do in your spare time?"_

_Anna stopped sipping from her chocolate milkshake for a moment to contemplate answering. She briefly glanced down at her arm, more specifically at the scars hidden below her gloves, before looking back at Elsa to answer._

"_I like making music the most … its sort of been the only thing I've ever been somewhat good at …" Anna seemed to want to say more, but she stopped herself. _

_Elsa didn't mind. She knew that Anna was more reserved than most people, including herself. She understood the fear of opening yourself to someone else, to lay yourself bare and hope and pray that they don't hurt you. _

_So Elsa did what she always wished someone would do for her, and that was keep going like normal and wait for her to work up the courage to talk about the things that hurt to talk about. _

"_Where is your favorite place to make music?" Elsa knew that the question was odd, but that question also had the dual purpose of fishing for an answer to a very specific question she was dying to know._

_Anna took a moment to think before answering, "at home."_

_Elsa didn't seem satisfied with that answer. Afraid her lack of social experience had just ruined this moment between friends Anna kept talking to fill the silence._

"_Gerda hired some guys to put in a sound proof room for me to make and listen to music in. They installed a bunch of speakers and everything. So what I like to do most is sit on one of the larger speakers in the center of the room and play some of my louder pieces. The way the speaker below me vibrates with the music, combined with the all the speakers around me makes my body hum with the music … do you know what I mean?"_

_When Elsa tilted her head to Anna with a distant look on her face, Anna lowered her gaze to her fidgeting hands. Her nerves got the best of her and she started rambling._

"_Like the air in the room starts the shake with the music, and when the sound hits your body you can __**feel**__ the beat in your chest. You can feel every beat like someone is hitting your chest from the inside with a hammer. That kind of feeling makes me feel like I'm one with the music, like I can just melt away with the vibrations in my chest and leave behind all the scary and dark things in the world. The volume of the music helps to drown out my thoughts, so I can't think about all the things that worry me or scare me. In those brief instances, it's just the music. There is nothing else in existence other than the music and the vibrations. And it's that feeling that I try to put in all of my music, because that feeling is one that everyone should feel from time to time. To be able to forget all your worries and fears and lose yourself to the music has sometimes helped me when I was down or scared, so if I can help other people when their depressed or sad or scared, then I would be really happy that my music was part of the reason for them feeling better-"_

_Anna didn't notice, but a warm smile lowly grew on Elsa's face as the redhead rambled on. The blonde's eyes were filled with pure love and admiration; her cheeks tinted with a small blush. Elsa was completely captivated by Anna, her rambling was the most adorable thing she had ever seen or heard, and everything she was talking about made the blonde's heart swell. _

_Elsa's eyes misted over at the sincerity in Anna's voice, she really strove to make people happy with her music, and to help them forget their fears or worries by making music that they could simply get lost in. _

_Elsa found herself getting lost in the musical sound of Anna's voice. The blonde didn't think she could ever tire of hearing the redhead's angelic voice. Elsa soon found herself leaning on the table between them, her head propped up onto the palm of her hand, as she attempted to get closer to the source of Anna's voice._

_But when Elsa noticed that tears were starting to form in Anna's eyes she panicked, she had to act fast. She had somehow upset the redhead, and now was about to make her cry. Elsa lifted her head from her arm that propping it up and lowed it onto Anna's hands that were shaking and fidgeting on the table. _

_The action startled Anna from her ramble, causing her to look up at Elsa._

_Elsa's heart skipped a beat of the teary eyed look on the redhead's face. The blonde was so caught up in admiring Anna that she failed to suppress the question that was still burning deep within her, desperate for answers._

"_Do you have a boyfriend?"_

* * *

Elsa gave a light chuckle at the memory of how Anna reacted to her sudden question. She remembers Anna's face going redder than her hair, and her flailing about nearly knocking over her milkshake as she vehemently denied having a boyfriend.

A few moments later Anna had asked Elsa if she did, to which the blonde denied immediately, but Elsa followed up her answer by saying she didn't have a girlfriend either, but that she wanted one.

That made Anna blush even harder, but Elsa shortly joined the bright red redhead with a fierce blush of her own when Anna squeaked out a 'me too.'

Now, Elsa wished she had had the courage to ask Anna out then. She wishes she had been able to say those three words to her before it was too late. Maybe if she had said it back then, maybe Anna might not have done what she did.

Gerda was looking at Elsa with a puzzled look on her face. The blonde had startled chuckling for no reason before she got quiet and sad once more. The elderly woman called out to the blonde, who was still lost in her thoughts.

"Elsa? What's wrong?"

The elderly woman's voice startled the blonde making her jump. Gerda's hand shot out to Elsa's arm to calm her down, as well as to send to silent apology for scaring her.

When Elsa secured her bearings once more, she answered Gerda's question in a low voice.

"I was just thinking about our first date … I wish I had the courage to be honest back then … maybe things would be different now …"

Gerda reacted in an instant, pulling the depressed blonde into a warm hug, and speaking into her ear in a soft whisper.

"Anna knew you cared about her … she knew you loved her like a sister … there's no reason to beat yourself up over things of the past … all we can do is look to the future and keep pushing on … for Anna."

Elsa was shaking her head. She never told Gerda the extent of her feelings for Anna, she always feared that Gerda would forbid her from visiting Anna in the hospital if she ever knew. Under threat of losing Anna again, she kept her silence, but no more.

She would no longer remain silent. She could admit to herself and Gerda that she was in love with the elderly woman's adopted daughter, and she would not allow anything to come between the two of them.

If Gerda disapproved, she would do everything in her power to prove to the elderly woman that she was worthy of Anna.

The blonde squared her shoulders to the elderly woman, before raising her chin to look Gerda in the eye. After the past 2 weeks of seeing Elsa as wounded and broken as she, Gerda was caught by surprise when the 'Ice Queen' resurfaced.

"You're wrong." Gerda's brow furrowed in confusion, as Elsa continued.

"I don't see her as a sister. I genuinely love her. I am _in_ love with her, with Anna."

Gerda's hand clapped over her mouth as a lone tear streamed down her face. She was trying to hold back the relieved tears, but failing. Letting go of her struggle to not cry she rushed forward and embraced Elsa in a crushing hug.

Gerda had her suspicions that Anna had a crush on Elsa. The redhead would talk about the blonde for hours on end. Gerda was initially concerned that Elsa wouldn't return the Anna's feelings, and instead of feeling proud that her adopted daughter had found someone to love, she felt her heart breaking for Anna, for the one she had chosen to love, didn't feel the same. She knew Elsa liked her, but she was convinced it was in a friendly manner, rather than a romantic way.

But with Elsa's admission, the seriousness in her voice told the elderly woman that she was being truthful. She really did love Anna.

As Gerda pulled away, a sickening thought occurred to her. Rather than keeping the thought to herself, she released it, believing that Elsa deserved to know everything.

"You don't know … You don't know how happy you've made me, but you also don't know what Anna came from. I had intended to tell you a little bit about Anna's childhood, but … you deserve to know everything ... If you truly meant what you said … about loving Anna, then you deserve to know the whole truth …"

Elsa's gaze never waivered, if anything it seemed eager. Elsa was eager to know of Anna's past.

Gerda felt her heart clench in pity. The blonde didn't know what she was getting herself into. She didn't understand that the knowledge she sought had the power to destroy the love she felt for Anna.

* * *

**End of Chapter 6**


	9. Chapter 7

**A small heads up. This chapter contains snip-its of a police report. I wasn't sure how to format it, so the "highlighted" portions of the report that are being read appear as bolded text and each snip-it ends with a "-" to signify the end of that "highlighted" portion. If the bolded text does not appear for whatever reason, then the police report starts after the first line break of the story.**

* * *

**Pink Mist – Chapter 7**

* * *

Gerda cautiously stepped into the kitchen. She was leaning wall to keep herself upright. She had just retrieved the file that had collected dust in her safe in her study and gave it to Elsa, before retreating away for the blonde to go through it alone.

The file itself was somewhat thin, it only contained the written report from the polices investigation as well as some photos of the two crime scenes, one of a cheap motel bathroom and the other of a rotten, tattered supply closet that had been stripped of all furniture and shelves.

The supply closet had mold everywhere, up the walls and on the ceiling. The one lone broken fluorescent lamp sat in the corner of the room. There were dark splotches of brown that stained the floor. In the photo the door can be seen, the wood on the lower half of the door had been stripped of its pain by scratches that reached about halfway up the door. The wood had been stained with the same brown substance that covered the floor.

A similar photo was paper clipped to the one of the supply closet. It showed the area just outside of the door. Leaning up against the wall just outside the door sat a line of tools ranging from baseball bats to fire stokes to a coil of barbed wire. Each of the tools was covered in a red-brown substances.

Gerda heard Elsa gasp from the other room when the blonde realized that those stains on the tools, as well as the stains on the floor of the room and on the inside of the door were bloodstains.

The photo of the dirty motel room had trash everywhere around the clearing in the center. Lottery tickets could be seen crumpled up on the floor of the room, mixed in with the trash. Two rusty, clearly used and worn, needles lay on the ground in the cleared patch of trash. Dried bloodstains could be seen on the needles, clearly their owners never took precautions to avoid infection.

As for the official police report, Elsa only skimmed the several pages of documents. Most of the document was redundant, citing protocols and file names that were submitted and when.

Several passages had been highlighted.

* * *

**Eyewitness #1 (aka: the babysitter) reported the poor living conditions provided to the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Summers -**

**Reports from an anonymous source indicates that the Summers both suffered from a gambling addiction and had borrowed money from some local loan sharks -**

**Eyewitness #1 reports seeing two "shady" men arrive at the premise of the Summers home just as they were leaving for the day -**

**Search warrant for Summers' home executed on March X****th**** informed the investigators that the Summers family had fled the premise several days prior to the search -**

**Forensic team submitted the hard drive of a recovered computer from the Summers' home. Files on the computer contained road maps and directs, thus suggested that the Summers family was planning a trip -**

**Acquisition of phone records further reinforces conclusion of the Summers' leaving town. Record shows that a taxi was called to the house three days prior to the acquisition of the search warrant -**

**Due to lack of adherence to proper corporate regulations and a lack of documentation from the taxi driver, reports about the destination of the Summers is unknown -**

**Reports from local airport and local transit stations proved fruitless in shedding light upon the whereabouts or ultimate destination of the Summers family -**

**Left with no leads to follow up on, a trip flag was placed on all financial accounts that could be linked to the Summers family, including the bank accounts of all distant relatives. If enough money were to be withdrawn from any of the accounts, we would be notified immediately -**

**6 months with no activity beyond the norm from all marked accounts -**

**All leads and tips since the taxi driver have been proven false or unrelated to the Summers case -**

**Another 6 months of no headway towards finding the Summers family has moved this case to archives and marked it **_**unsolved**_**, the digital trip flags will remain active for another year -**

**Case submitted to archives on March X****th**** -**

**Case reopened after 1 year in the archives after a flag was set off on the bank account of Mrs. Summers' deceased father. All funds were drained from the account. The ATM that dispensed the money is located in Las Vegas, Nevada -**

**Casino records report that Mr. and Mrs. Summers have been spending most of their time gambling. Their current balance on the credit card that the Casino has on file is nearly $600,000 in the negative -**

**Local reports suggest that Mr. and Mrs. Summers have been borrowing money from several notorious loan sharks in the area -**

**Mr. and Mrs. Summers' trend to pay for nearly everything with cash, with the exception of the casino, which requires a credit card to be on file, has proven troublesome when attempting to track them down -**

**Thanks to the cooperation of the Las Vegas, Nevada Police Department (LVNPD) a BOLO has been issued for the couple -**

**The LVNPD forwarded a report to the investigators saying that a couple matching the description issued on the BOLO for Mr. and Mrs. Summers were seen entering a motel just off the strip -**

**Concerns were raised when one of the junior detectives, that had been shadowing the lead detectives, brought forward his findings about the behavioral trends of Mr. and Mrs. Summers. He reported that Mr. and Mrs. Summers nearly always ate their meals at the casino that they gambled at, yet none of the witness they had interviewed at the casinos ever reported seeing a small girl with the couple -**

**Anna Summers, who should now be around 6 years old, was never mentioned in any of the eyewitness' accounts and thus was assumed to have remained in the motel that Mr. and Mrs. Summers were staying at. This raised questions as to whether her parents were feeding her or not -**

**A forensic psychologist has been enlisted to give a full psych evaluation given the information that the team has of the behavior and personalities of Mr. and Mrs. Summers. The report submitted by the psychologist contained their express suggestion that the team move in to arrest the couple out of the fear they had for the daughter's wellbeing -**

**With the considerations of the junior detective's report and the psychologist's report, the lead investigators move to arrest the couple immediately. Little resistance was met when acquisitioning a search warrant and an arrest warrant for Mr. and Mrs. Summers -**

**With cooperation from the LVNPD, a strike team was established and the arrest was carried out once a pair of scouting officers reported the couple had entered their motel room -**

**The strike team reported no sound or light coming from the motel room leading up to their execution of the arrest -**

**The strike team reported that the motel room was "trashed," with most of the furniture being either broken or damaged. They cleared the main room before moving to the closet and bathroom. The closet contained their luggage, still packed, and an empty duffel bag, which was assumed to have been used to carry money to and from their motel room -**

**The strike team reported finding the couple matching the descriptions of Mr. and Mrs. Summers lying prone on the floor of the bathroom. Both suspects had their eyes open, but did not respond to directions issued by the strike team -**

**The strike team reported that neither suspect had a pulse, and that there were two needles on the floor in the vicinity of the suspects. It was presumed that the suspects had both overdosed on illegal substances and died -**

**Extensive searches of the hotel room and all neighboring rooms yielded no sign of the now deceased Mr. and Mrs. Summers' daughter, Anna Summers -**

**A large-scale search was carried out by the LVNPD that included the area around the motel, as well as the surrounding desert. Even with the use of scent dogs and cadaver dogs in both the surrounding neighborhood and desert, no indication of Anna Summers was found -**

**The LVNPD released an ad on the several mediums of media asking for any information about Anna. The photo they used was one of the few photos of the girl when she was three years old. In the ads they mentioned that Anna should be about 6 years old now -**

**No relative reports were ever submitted -**

**The LVNPD kept the ads running for 6 months, before redacting their request for information from the public. Theories and speculation circulated that Mr. and Mrs. Summers had sold their daughter into the sex slave industry, or that they had abandoned her in the desert on their way to Las Vegas. With the lack of any solid lead on the whereabouts of Anna Summers, the lead investigators followed up any theory that could be proven plausible -**

**No conclusive evidence ever turned up that supported any claim or theory proposed to the lead investigators -**

**One of the lead investigators and the junior detective who noticed the lack of signs of the Summers' daughter returned to the hometown of the Summers family to see if they had missed anything -**

**2 months later a past neighbor of the Summers' family came forward with a new report that had previously not been recorded. They reported seeing two men, one with a duffel bag, knock on the door to the Summer's home. According to the eyewitness' account, the men entered the house for a few minutes before leaving again, this time without the duffel bag. One of the men was carrying a young Anna Summers to an unmarked car with blacked out windows and no license plate -**

**Due to the reluctance of local citizens to speak out against these two, apparently they were widely known for vandalizing the property of anyone who got too friendly with police, it took 2 months to successfully identify these two men who were the last people to see Anna Summers alive -**

**The men were known under several aliases and false names, but a lucky break was caught when a hospital record was discovered detailing one of the men with several identifiable tattoos being admitted for a broken hand. The man paid his hospital bill with a credit card that was register to his real name and address -**

**The man was arrested for several federal charges including kidnapping a minor. Due to a lack of cooperation from the arrested felon, his partner could not be located -**

**After 2 months of no headway towards locating the other partner, concerns were raised that with his partner having been arrested, the last remaining kidnapper may be panicking and trying to get rid of evidence, primarily Anna -**

**A deal was made with the kidnapper in custody for information concerning the whereabouts of both his partner and Anna, in exchange for the dropping of some of his charges -**

**The recovery team that was sent into the warehouse to find and retrieve Anna Summers reported their concern about the integrity of the building, claiming that the entire building reeked of mold and decay -**

**The recovery team reported finding the room that contained Anna due to the number of malicious instruments that sat in a pile next to a supply closet door -**

**The medics that were a part of the recovery team reported that nearly all of the weapons in the hallway had blood on them. The instrument that was on top of the pile, which was a chainsaw chain, still had fresh blood coating it -**

**The members of the recovery team that had extensive experience in police strike forces reported seeing and hearing no signs of life on the other side of the closed door -**

**When the recovery team breached the supply closet, the members reported that the room had been stripped bare. There was one fluorescent lamp in the corner that appeared to have ruptured, indicated by the innumerable shards of glass that littered the floor around the lamp-**

**The recovery team reported spotting a small figure lying prone in the corner opposite the broken lamp. The small figure matched the rough profile given to them by the investigators concerning their estimates of Anna's size, shape and appearance -**

**The first responding medics, reported the young child having multiple bleeding lesions on her back, the pattern in the injury matched that of the chainsaw blades just outside the door -**

**Numerous scars littered the child's body from head to toe, with the greatest concentration being on her hands, arms and back. The child's face was heavily bruised. Her skin was covered in a red-brown crust, which the medics reported suspecting was dried blood that had built up on her skin over numerous beatings that drew blood-**

**The babysitter, just outside of the warehouse, successfully identified Anna Summers as she was being loaded into the Life Star helicopter-**

**The two men were both convicted of multiple felonies, including kidnapping and attempted murder. The second suspect, who was apprehended fleeing the scene as the recovery team was searching the building, confessed to all crimes against him, but also provided information about several other lucrative crimes that his "partner" committed over the years-**

**Both men were sentenced to jail time that exceeds the duration of their remaining lives-**

**Anna Summers was admitted into the ICU for extensive physical and psychological injuries, followed by a transfer to a specialized rehabilitation center that specializes in patients suffering from psychological damage due to traumatic events and occurrences-**

* * *

**End of Chapter 7**


	10. Chapter 8

**I know my descriptive skills are abysmal. So I ask that you please bear with me as I attempt to describe a complex musical piece in words. Also, I couldn't bring myself to re-read this nightmare of a chapter over again, so if you find any mistakes or grammatical errors I ask that you forgive me, this was just as painful to write as it is to read.**

**My self-depreciating warning aside, I hope you enjoy. (but i know few will)**

* * *

**Pink Mist – Chapter 8**

* * *

Elsa was numb.

She didn't want to move.

She didn't want to talk.

She just wanted the world to swallow her whole.

Anything to get away from this feeling.

This feeling of crushing despair and consuming fear.

She felt her skin tingle as she read the police report. Her head locked in one position, unable to move away from the words on the report. Every letter felt like a new knife that pierced her heart.

She hardly registered the elderly hand that pried the now crumpled police report out of her hands. She couldn't feel the warm hand at her back that was now guiding her to a different place. She couldn't be bothered to acknowledge the smell of leather bound ink that permeated this new room.

Gerda gently settled Elsa down onto the large leather chair. The blank look on the girl's face told Gerda that Elsa was lost. The younger woman didn't know how to feel, she didn't know how to cope. So Gerda decided to do the one thing that helped her when she first read the report.

Gerda shuffled over to the sound system nearby, one of Anna's CDs already in hand. The sound system was connected to the 24 speakers around the room. This room was Gerda's favorite place to listen to music in, the vaulted ceilings had some of the best acoustics she had ever heard, the wood flooring helped to permeate the music to every corner of the library.

The CD Gerda placed into the sound system was Anna's first piece. It was the one that even to this day was incomplete. This piece was completely different from any piece that Gerda had ever heard. It lasted nearly 40 minutes, and had nearly every instrument that had ever been included in an orchestra or symphony. This one piece was the culmination of every emotion Anna had ever felt in her entire life. Gerda dimmed the lights as the music began to pour through the speakers.

* * *

The music started off small and tentative passages from the strings. Nearly ever note ended with a sharp rise in tone, almost like the inflection in a person's voice when they ask a question. It conveyed a sense of curiosity, of child-like wonder. This innocent sound grew in volume, until the child-like inflections were met with the angry outburst of the brass. The loud and abrasive tones silenced the strings.

Then after a few beats of silence the strings would start up again, this time quieter. Only after a long while did the strings dare get louder, but the brass lashed out again, this time louder and stronger.

Every time, the brass would build up its volume and ascend the scale in a few notes, then blast the strings with its pent up rage as it worked its way down the scale again.

This pattern continued, each time the strings were attacked sooner and sooner. They were bashed and beaten despite being quieter than the time before. Eventually, the mass of the strings grew thin and feeble. The once hoard of strings that were all playing in sync in the beginning had whittled down to just one or two strings.

The temper of the brass grew in cruelty and shrank in longevity, until the last remaining string player could only play a few noted before the entirety of the brass crashed down on top of it. Eventually only a single note escaped the battered and broken string, before the brass wound up for another beating. This time, rather than screaming out as the musical abuse persisted, the string instantly silenced itself. Beats of silence passed, waiting for the beating to commence, but it never came.

Tentatively the lone string sung out another note. The brass instantly jumped on the string, beating it into silence. The message was clear, don't make a noise and you won't be beat.

After several full measures of silence, the brass lashed out once more. This time the anger came with no provocation. The musical beating was relentless until an audible crack was heard, when the brass halted. The strings corralled into a painful wail, yet all of the strings were muted. Something had been placed on the instruments to keep the piercing tone of the strings at bay leaving their sound muffled.

The strings were allowed to wail on, unabated for some time. Before the brass raised its cruel hand, ready to strike the strings. Instantly the strings quieted, but the sound never completely stopped, one lone string struggled to hold back the pain and suffering it was feeling. Apparently that was good enough for the brass, for the beating never came.

This happened again and again. Each time the loud crack would follow a musical beating, followed by the strings crying out with heavy dissonance, only to be silenced with the threat of another music assault. This continued until the strings learned their lesson, even if something breaks don't cry out, don't make a sound, don't make a noise and you won't be beat.

After some time, a new sound broke out through the silence. It sounded as if the orchestra was stomping their feet on the stage in perfect synch with the percussion. The footsteps got louder and louder until the strings broke out in squeals and pained notes that would grind in the ears of the listeners due to their mismatched pitches. The dissonance between each player was overwhelming, making the audience cringe in pain at the sound. All the while the brass were playing tones of joy that slowly got quieter and quieter, as if they were getting farther and farther away. Clearly the abusive brass was happy and rejoicing as the strings were being carried off by the foreboding footsteps.

After a while of the steps continuing, they eventually halted. The squeaking of, what sounded like a rusty door hinge, sounded before the strings yelped and the percussion tumbled through a disorganized passage before being cut off by the resounding slam that resembled a door being thrown against its frame.

The entire orchestra fell deathly silent. Only the bass drum thumping along at irregular beats, not unlike a heartbeat.

The footsteps returned again, the bass drum's heart beat speeding up. The squeak of the hinge sounded off again, then the door was slammed once more. The strings became happy, almost elated, but in an odd pattern, in one measure they would be unhindered, the next, the mutes would return. This odd pattern continued, each time the strings halting at the end of a muted passage, as if to take a breath, before singing out unmuted once more, only to become muted again a few bars later, taking a breath, then repeating the cycle.

After a while the joy would pass, followed by long stretches of lonely and somber harmonies. The strings broke the silence when they began to cry out in pain, always in throbbing waves. The waves grew in duration, while the time between them shortened as time went on. Until, the door opened and closed again. Then the happy tones would return.

Except, the strings lost their joy after some time. They were happy in the beginning and executed their mute-unmute pattern, but then they stopped. Only for them to start up again, they would be uplifted and slightly happy, then muted again, then stop suddenly.

This pattern continued until once, when the sound of _those_ footsteps emerged, followed by the squeak of the door opening and closing. But this time the strings didn't play. They remained silent. Then, as if by mistake one of the strings played a small pip of a note, this small sound was immediately followed by the recurrence of the booming assault by the brass, this time the brass were led by the formidable tubas, as they bellowed out notes so low the whole room rumbled as they played.

This brass was vastly different from the previous brass. The first brass that used to attack the strings was violent, but up to a certain point. It attacked the strings with blunted tones, and always would strike until the strings would become silent. This brass was worse; it would lash out at the strings and continue to attack even after the strings had stifled themselves. This brass was more malicious, crueler, and more aggressive than ever before.

These beatings would come randomly, sometimes whole passages would come and pass before the next, but they would always follow the footsteps. Sometimes the strings would be spared for a few measures or a few passages before they were assaulted again. This continued in parallel with the steady decline of the joyous passages from the strings that normally follow the footsteps.

This entire cycle of silence and footsteps that would immediately be followed by the violent lashing out from the brass finally met its conclusion when the strings were lying in utter silence. Without the sound of the indicative footsteps ever appearing, the brass struck harder and more ferocious then ever before, beating down on already silent and unmoving strings. Never once did the strings make a sound, they simply let the brass continue without ever offering any resistance.

When they were done and the strings lay still and silent like a corpse, they left. The footsteps never returned, they were replaced by a shuffling noise that was so subtle Elsa nearly missed the sound, this new sound soon faded into the distance. The heartbeat that had been faithfully thumping away on the bass drum grew soft and weak. The beat was slowing, as if the heart was dying.

Until, a single trumpet and French horn cut through the silence. Both were nearly inaudible, but the warm tones were still there. The strings returned to the music, albeit in deathly quiet passages that never lead to a crescendo. The strings stayed quite, their voices never rising about a whisper, as if the musicians were ghosting the bow over the string.

The trumpet and French horn duo started out soft, playing valiant and heroic tones. The audience was reminded of a hero's entrance song as they swooped in to rescue the damsel in distress. The brass duo seemed to urge the bass drum forward, as it grew more confident in its thumping. The heartbeat became more pronounced, as if the brass duo were driving off the grip of death and resuscitating the orchestra back to life.

The movement ended when the heartbeat returned to its original energetic thumping from before the arrival of the footsteps. Yet, the strings remained a ghostly whisper that still carried the grating dissonance that was instilled within them from the start of the piece.

* * *

Elsa was only mildly aware of the tears flowing down her face. She could see Gerda a short ways away. The elderly woman was sitting at a nearby desk, her head was in her hands as her shoulders shook from the sobs that racked her body.

Gerda hated listening to this part, yet she could never bring herself to turn it off or shy away from it. For this piece _was _Anna, and she could never turn away from her own daughter, even if she was adopted.

Elsa could feel the grip of the music pull her into the dark void of its body as the sound waves resonated throughout her entire frame. In one last thought before she became one with the music again, she vaguely thought to herself that she finally understood what Anna meant by being absorbed into the music.

* * *

This movement started out eerily quiet. The tones were not sad, but they weren't happy either. The brass lay silent, as if the section was void of all people. The strings carried less dissonance than usual, but they still remained deathly quiet . In the percussion section, the marimba could be heard, striking the same perfect note over and over again. Its pitch and tone creating a sound similar to synthetic beeping.

The rhythm and pitch reminded Elsa of a heartbeat monitor, in and instant she realized that Anna was in the hospital.

The music retained its quieter tones, the strings never gaining any volume of power.

Out of seemingly nowhere one of the strings hit a wrong note, immediately following the far off echo of a footstep and a lone note from the tubas. All strings dropped out of the audible range. Old behaviors kicked in and lessons learned caused the strings to fall into utter silence.

The brass assault that had come every time before, never began. The strings eased out of silence, testing the waters with hesitant passages kept so quiet Elsa had to strain her ears to hear them.

Time passed, until again the strings drifted off into peaceful silence, rather than hushed. But the brass cut through the silence. Only, the sharp notes and tones weren't overpowering. The aggressive tones sounded distant and muffled, they sounded hollow and echoed unnaturally, not unlike hearing music in a dream. The contours of sleep bend and mix the sounds until they sound similar but distinctly different than reality.

With a start, the strings jumped into song, they wailed and shrieked in fear and pain. Haunted by the fake brass, the strings were ripped out of their peaceful sleep. The music picked up the tempo and the continuous marimba began beeping even faster.

The tempo appeared to reach speeds that were not achievable by humans; the beeping marimba's tones began to meld together, almost in a solid tone.

A French horn sounded off in the midst of the chaotic strings. It didn't beat the strings into silence, nor did it lash and cause more pain. Instead it soothed them. The passage from the French horn sounded off to the audience, its beat was nearly half as fast as the racing orchestra. The horn was firm in its articulation, yet gentle in tone. It corralled the band to play slower, as if calming down the frantic orchestra. The last section to join the French horn in its slower tune, were the strings. The French horn had to play louder to be heard over their dissonance.

The strings flinched when the French horn grew louder, but as they quieted themselves, so too did the horn grow quieter with them. The lone horn and the strings fell to near silence together.

The horn's passage changed slightly from soothing passages with a firm articulation, to sleepy ones with long drawn out notes and more slurs with less articulated notes and passages. It wasn't long until the strings to lulled into another peaceful sleep. The French horn remained; never did it fade into silence and leave the scared and broken strings alone and at the mercy of their nightmares.

The significantly shorter movement continued in this fashion, with moments of the nightmarish brass returning to torment the dreams of the strings. Every time, the French horn would continue to calm the strings and lull them back to sleep, without fail. Elsa realized that the strings only ever got louder than a whisper when they were shrieking in pain and fear. Before she realized it, the movement had ended just after the emergence of the trumpet for a brief solo.

* * *

Elsa glanced over at Gerda. She wasn't leaning over the desk any more. Instead she was leaning back into her chair. Her head was resting on the chair's high back and her eyes were closed. She wasn't happy, but she appeared to be relieved that the worse was over.

Elsa's knowledge from the police report ended here. From here on out, she would be experiencing everything Anna felt leading up to today. She wasn't sure if she wanted to know how the redhead had been feeling when they first met, or how she felt during their pseudo-dates, but her curiosity got the better of her. She decided to mimic Gerda and lean back to enjoy the music more.

* * *

This movement was paced much more quickly than the previous two. The music could almost be called upbeat. The strings were a little bit louder now, not longer were they ghostly whispers. The trumpet from the tail end of the previous movement was back, only this time it was in the forefront of the orchestra, right along side of the strings.

The strings were much brighter than ever before. Their dissonance was gone, but the strings as a whole were slightly hesitant. They were undoubtedly happy, but they were somewhat scared too. As if this happy and peaceful time wasn't meant to last.

The trumpets did a marvelous job coaxing the strings out into more playful passages. Playing musical games with the hesitant strings, such as call and response. At one point the one trumpet and one string were locked in a playful bout of improvisation. Bouncing musical ideas off each other, and mimicking each other's passages with slight variations.

The pure happiness in the entire movement brought a smile to Elsa and Gerda's faces.

That was until one of the strings pushed too hard on the bow, the resulting sound was piercing and aggressive. It cut through the uplifting tones and silenced the other strings around the one player. This string ground away at the bow, making long grinding strokes as they played violently. On multiple occasions the other strings would try to calm the one destructive and aggressive string. Only for it to lash out and silence them, much like the violent brass of the past.

And then, just as quickly as the self-destructive string appeared, it vanished. The trumpet and strings played together like nothing had ever happened. The trumpets gave no heed to what the strings just did to them selves because they were ignorant to reality.

The joyous harmonies and melodies returned again, until Elsa heard the volume as a whole lower. She opened her eyes to see Gerda looking at her. The olderly woman had turned down the volume on the sound system and was currently holding back tears as she spoke.

"I thought that Anna was trying to tell me that she was still having nightmares … I thought that violent player represented her dreams or her memories that came back to haunt her every now and again … not … never did I even consider what that one string actually meant … I was blind to what Anna was trying to tell me … I'm a failure of a parent …"

Before Elsa could interject, to tell her she was wrong, Gerda increased the volume. The now blasting music did little to cover up Gerda's sobs, but after a few bars, Gerda quieted herself so that both of them could focus on Anna's music.

* * *

The pattern from before repeated for quite some time. The strings would be happy and content, then immediately turn violent whenever that one musician would interrupt the joy with long _cutting_ passages of anger and pain.

That was until, during one of the string's self-abusive passages, the anguish and pain was cut short by the emergence of a new instrument, a flute. The light and airy, yet full and gentle sounds of the wind instrument instantly calmed the violent string.

The flute was confident and beautiful. Yet it would constantly try to coax the strings along, trying to get them to play along with it. The flute sounded almost flirtatious as it enticed the strings with varying passages of complex yet beautiful music that seemed to pull the strings together. When the flute was playing, the self-destructive string never emerged, as if the Flute helped the strings keep the demons at bay. Elsa heard the same few notes from the flute whenever it would arrive to dance with the strings. It sounded like a rapid fluttering between notes, almost like a trill, but somewhat different. Soon enough, the trill-like sound became a calling card of sorts for the flute.

But, every so often, the flute would leave for the day, and the cycle of joy and hate would return again. Often times, in the midst of the string's bout of violence, one lone string could be heard repeating the flute's trill-like song, just behind the angry strings.

The violent string grew in intensity, growing bolder with time. It would strike at increasing frequency, often times interrupting the dance between the trumpet and the peaceful strings, but never when the flute was around. The pain felt by the one violent string would compel the rest of the strings to flee, so they could suffer in solitude.

One time, the flute appeared towards the tail end of the string's violent episode. It was quite, like it was trying to hide. Elsa realized that this was when she was peeping on Anna as she was cutting in the bathroom. With this realization came the one that told Elsa that she was the flute.

Elsa's heart swelled. She had made Anna happy, truly happy … but it wasn't enough. She couldn't take away Anna's pain. She only saved her when she was around. She couldn't quell Anna's fears or heal her scars. Elsa would have let herself fall into despair at their realization, had the music not taken a drastic turn for the worst.

The rest of the string section, which had been beaten into silence by the lone angry string, all corralled into one cohesive mass of anger and pain. Up until this point the one cruel string would attack its comrades and instill pain onto them, but now all of the strings were playing together. They all sang out in anger, pain and suffering; attacking the rest of the orchestra.

The violence and intensity mounted. The brass made a overpowering return, only this time the strings dominated them, beating them into submission, until the brass fell into line below the strings acting as the locomotive power that drove the strings forward. The string's anger grew in intensity, building and building, until it felt like the entire house was swaying with the string's rage.

Through all of the chaos and anger, Elsa heard that same string playing the flute's trill. It broke her heart to hear what this music had become. It was a raging monster that had lost all hope. The musical beast crashed its way through the movement, destroying any semblance of peace, tranquility or happiness.

Elsa noticed the distinct absence of the flute. She wondered why it had failed to reappear, until she remembered that she had avoided all contact with Anna following that night in the bathroom of the school.

In the chaos of the music, Elsa swore she heard the sounds of Anna's of club music.

The orchestra was disorganized, yet had a mutual direction. As if the every section was pushing towards the same objective.

The sounds from the enraged orchestra rose once more, approaching its apex one last time. The strings were ferociously strumming on their instruments with violent and overpowering strikes from their bows.

In the last passage, the entirety of the band fell into silence save for the strings, who were still angrily beating their instruments into dust. Elsa could practically hear the creaking of the wooden instruments as they strained against the physical punishment of the musicians. At the end, a distinct cracking sound could be heard before the music was cut from the speakers.

* * *

Elsa was stunned into silence. Her face was contorted in confusion and worry. She was having trouble making sense of the implication of what she had just heard.

The pain Anna felt was more than the blonde thought anyone would have been able to endure. She had suffered through her own parents beating her, then she was sold to two strangers who gave her food on infrequent occasion, practically starving her. They abused her and tortured her for years. Even when she had been rescued from that hellhole, she wasn't cured of her scars. Even in her dreams, she was reminded of the horrors she had been victim to from the day of her birth. That terror and pain burrowed its way into her heart and soul, lashing out even in the happiest of times.

Elsa realized that Anna had been happy when the two of them were together. More importantly, Anna hardly experienced those cutting urges when she was around. But when she discovered Anna cutting herself, she served as the trigger that pushed the redhead to attempt to end her life. The thought of what her life would have been like had Anna succeeded in her attempt was enough to bring tears to her eyes. She couldn't imagine going back to the cold-hearted ice queen ever again.

Not after finding someone she loved more that _him_. She couldn't bring herself to even contemplate losing Anna, it hurt too much.

Gerda was looking at her now. She still looked confused, So Gerda spoke up.

"-ton … I suppose it was Anna's way of saying that she was done with music … and life."

Elsa was so engrossed in her own mind that she missed half of what Gerda was trying to tell her. She shook her head, trying to shake herself from her thoughts, before locking eyes with the older woman. It was all she could think to do to show Gerda that she was listening, she didn't yet trust herself to be able to talk.

A pregnant pause passed before the blonde broke the silence of her own will.

"In that song, was the brass …?" Elsa trailed off in her sentence, she didn't want to infer wrong and make it look like she was incapable of understanding Anna's music.

Gerda lowered her gaze before answering.

"They were her parents and the men who held her captive. They were never able to prove that Anna's parents were abusive to her … the wounds from the _those_ men covered up any wounds that Anna may have sustained from her parents … I suppose it's a good thing they chose the coward's way out, that way they couldn't get away with treating their own daughter like trash-"

Elsa interrupted Gerda before she could continue.

"They did get away with it. They killed themselves rather than atoning for their crimes against Anna. They ran away from their responsibility and left Anna all alone in this world, while they passed away in what I assume was a euphoric, drug induced high … that's unforgivable!"

Gerda reached out to lay a hand on the blonde's shoulder, but she was shrugged off when Elsa angrily stomped off.

The blonde had turned to anger to express herself. She was outraged at what Anna's 'parents' had subjected her to.

_They were her _parents_! They were supposed to protect their child, not sell them to their debt collectors! If her parents hadn't already killed themselves I would use all of my parent's connections to rain hell down upon them!_

_Wait …_

An idea struck Elsa, she turned to Gerda. The elderly woman expected to see eyes alit with fury, but only saw a spark of creativity and inquiry in Elsa's azure eyes.

"Gerda, has Anna ever sought closure with her kidnappers? I read from the police report that both of them have been sentenced to prison for life, so they should still be alive … right?"

Gerda tilted her head in ponder, before returning to the blonde to give her an answer.

"No- … I mean, yes. They should be alive, but Anna has never showed any interest in … _them_ … and I don't blame her. She can hardly handle being stuck in a dark room to sleep in at night. I fear that if she were to face those two, she wouldn't survive it …"

Elsa shook her head, her eyes never once leaving Gerda's face. She was brimming with confidence … and pride?

"She's stronger than you think … she has been fighting a losing battle nearly her whole life. Sure, she's been suffering up until this point, but she chose to live. It took nearly 18 years of torture for her to finally lose hope and attempt to end it. If I were in her position I would have ended my suffering well before I made it to her age! The fact she could endure everything she has suffered from and keep enough hope that things would get better and not end her suffering is a testament to just how strong she really is … she just doesn't realize it."

Gerda was surprised; she had never looked at Anna's life that way. She had been taking pity on the younger girl, thinking that it was her responsibility to be the girl's strength, when in reality Anna has had the strength to live with her fear for over a decade. She felt ashamed for thinking of her own daughter as such a weak individual. Before she could further berate herself Elsa spoke up.

"Which is why I want to do something to help her realize her own strength. I want to help her move on, but she can't do that if she never faces her fears and if she never proves to _those_ _two_ that she survived their abuse. I want to prove my worth to her and I want to prove to her that she is worthy of all the love in the world. The doctor at the hospital told me that I needed to give her a reason to live, but I think he was wrong. She already has a reason to live, I just need to get her to realize what it is. If I can help her realize her own worth … then maybe I can earn my place beside her!"

Gerda was about to respond when Elsa kept going.

"Which is why I need your help!" Elsa was pleading at this point. "I want to do something for her, but I can't do it without help!"

* * *

**End of Chapter 8**


	11. Chapter 9

**What with finals on the horizon I'll most likely just be mass posting these chapters today. I hope they are at least somewhat enjoyable to read.**

* * *

**Pink Mist – Chapter 9**

* * *

Elsa and Gerda set out to make all of the necessary preparations for their plan. Gerda reached out to all of her past colleagues in the hopes of amassing all of the necessary people. When they were told of the circumstances surrounding this seemingly random request, all of them agreed in a heartbeat, but when Gerda found herself unable to find several key individuals that were pivotal in the success or failure of this plan, the elderly woman was at a loss of what to do.

That was until Elsa's father, who had been brought up to speed about the entire situation and knew about all of Elsa's intentions and feelings about this plan and about Anna, offered to 'take care of it' without informing Gerda of what he planned to do exactly. Gerda had some misgivings getting the obviously very busy CEO of an international company involved, but when Adgar Winter explained that he had failed to be there for Elsa in the past but was determined to not make the same mistakes twice, Gerda graciously accepted his assistance.

Elsa, on the other hand, petitioned to Arendelle's administrative body that they allow a campus wide event to be held on an unspecified date in the future. She also requested that the school participate in the funding for this event to some degree. She reasoned that this event would surely draw the attention of the media and would be good press for the university, as well as serve to help one of the greatest minds to have ever attended Arendelle.

But when the governing administrative body denied both requests Elsa set out to circumvent their authority entirely. With the help of her friends and nearly the entire student body at the music program, Elsa was able to set up fundraising events all across campus and in town. Every club that Elsa and her gang had performed at with Anna's music readily agreed to sponsor Elsa in her project, some even asked for Anna's address to send employment requests to. The club owners even went out of their to host weekend events where a portion of the funds generated were sent to Elsa for her project.

All across campus, Elsa and her gang performed in a number of venues. Every time using Anna's music, in an effort to spread the word about what Elsa was trying to do and to gather funds and donations.

Elsa initially offered to pay for the entire thing herself, but after talking about her plans in detail with her mother, who had also vowed to improve herself and be there for her daughter, she realized that it would mean more to Anna if she knew that all of the people she reached with her music helped to pull this grand scheme off.

While all of this was going on, Elsa visited Anna every day. She would talk to the comatose redhead for hours on end. She often was reduced to tears, but she never let her heartache weigh her down. She now had an idea of how Anna had suffered for over a decade, and she knew that if Anna could carry her burdens for that long without letting it stop her from doing the one thing she loved the most, then neither could she. So every morning she was free from either performing at clubs or on campus to raise money, or when she didn't have classes, Elsa went to Gerda's home to learn the necessary skills to accomplish her role in this plan.

* * *

"You … you spineless worm! You gave me your word that you would uphold your side of this deal!" Adgar bellowed into the phone's receiver. His tight hold on the plastic device caused the casing to creak from the pressure being exerted onto it.

Elsa and her parents had been going over the financials of this project when the phone rang. The owner of the venue had backed out of the agreement to hold the space reserved for when Anna would wake up. Adgar had offered to pay the man for all profits that he would have lost due to not hosting his usual clients, but the man had cracked under the pressure of his past clients.

They were now without a venue and Anna was expected to wake up in the next few months. Elsa's head fell into her hands at the news. Her mother, Idun sat down beside her daughter to rub her back in comfort. Adgar on the other hand was threatening the man on the phone with lawsuits, but his rant was cut off when the venue owner hung up on the CEO.

Adgar stormed into the dining room, where they had been going over their progress thus far, before angrily throwing the wireless phone into the opposite wall. Adgar had grown close to his daughter in these past few months, closer than he had been in years. He had felt more motivation towards this project than he had in years of running his company, he supported his daughter 100% and was glad to put his all into helping his beloved daughter in this endeavor, but when self-centered idiots threatened to derail this entire project he had let his temper get the better of him.

Adgar sent his wife an apologetic glance over the now destroyed phone, but Idun waved off his silent apology. She appeared to be just as annoyed as he was. Adgar was about to ask his family what they thought was the best move forward, until Idun rose from the couch and grabbed one of the other wireless phones from its stand. She looked to her husband with the phone in hand, before addressing the still fuming man.

"Adgar, Honey, I told you we should have gone with my plan from the start. It's a good thing that man backed out of your agreement, other wise my efforts would have gone to waste."

Adgar stared at his wife in shock, even Elsa lifted her head to gape at her mother. Idun hit the speed dial button on the house phone before lifting the speaker to her ear.

"My _husband's_ man backed out … we're going with our plan." Idun ended the call and tossed the phone to her husband, before turning to her daughter.

"Elsa, Sweetie, we won't have to worry about the seating arrangements anymore. I made several calls a while back and acquired all of the land and building permits to build a new venue just off campus. This one is eight times the size of the one your father wanted to use, and it can easily hold everyone on our current guest list with plenty of extra space."

Idun moved next to her husband before addressing her daughter again.

"We were thinking that we could invite some other people … if we could find them … Honey?"

Adgar glanced at his daughter hesitantly before turning back to his wife.

"I thought we were going to surprise her and Anna?"

"I figured after nearly giving her a heart attack over the venue, we owe it to her to let her in on the surprise."

"Fair enough … we managed to track down some people from Anna's past … people who I think she would be glad to meet again."

Elsa's eyes were tearing up. She quickly wiped the tears away before looked up at her parents with hope and curiosity.

"Who did you find?"

* * *

**End of Chapter 9**


	12. Chapter 10

**Pink Mist – Chapter 10**

* * *

All of the preparations had been completed, and all of the necessary characters had been informed of the project's completion and of the plan for the next few weeks. Now, they simply needed to wait for the most important person to wake before this enormous plan was executed.

Several private jets had been placed on standby around the world, ready to collect their passengers at a moments notice. Countless individuals waited by their phones for the phone call that would mark the commencement of this awe-inspiring project. Of those waiting, several hundred worked tirelessly to perfect their craft so to make this event everything it was meant to be.

One such individual was working late into the night, practicing her role and running through her plan in its entirety. Everything had to be perfect, she wouldn't accept anything less for the girl she loved.

* * *

Elsa and Gerda had agreed that it would be best if the elderly woman were the one to be there for when Anna woke up. Elsa feared her own nerves would ruin the surprise too quickly.

So, when Anna opened her eyes for the first time in nearly a year. The first thing she saw was the loving smile of the elderly woman, followed by a firm scolding from Gerda about her attempted suicide. Anna explained that she didn't know what else to do to stop the pain. She confessed that she regrets her actions, but she said that if it ever started hurting again that she didn't know if she would have the strength to resist the temptation to attempt again.

Gerda promised her adopted daughter that she would do everything in her power to help her through her suffering. Anna internally doubted that the elderly woman could do anything to help her, but she said nothing out loud.

* * *

Anna was weak and frail, after not moving for nearly a year, her muscles were severely atrophied. The doctors explained to her that she would need to attend physical therapy to learn how to walk and use her hands again. The wounds on her wrists had long since healed, but according to the doctors she had damaged the tendons in her arms when she made the cuts. They said that her grip strength would never be was it used to, though with enough physical therapy it shouldn't pose much of a problem for normal daily activities.

Anna inquired about Elsa, but the elderly woman's ambiguous answer of 'she's making the necessary preparations for a week from now' only left Anna confused.

Gerda told Anna about an event that she had been invited to. According to the elderly woman, an old friend had funded the construction of the grand theater house that had been built just outside of campus. Gerda's 'friend' had heard about how her new daughter loved to make music and extended the invitation to her as well.

Anna nearly rejected the invitation, but stopped after Gerda mentioned that Elsa would be attending. Anna agreed to go without protest.

* * *

Adgar had just received word from Elsa, who had heard from Gerda that Anna had woken up. The CEO buzzed with anticipation as he informed his PA to contact his wife about the good news and to initiate the phone chain that spanned the globe. A short 6 hours later, the first planes started landing in Arendelle Airport

The one airport in Arendelle had been purchased by Adgar and had undergone multiple renovations to accommodate all of the air traffic it was going to experience soon. The multi-billionaire that was the CEO of Winter Industries, commissioned the construction of two extra runways and doubled the airport's gate count. He also organized an entire fleet of limos to transport all of the expected guests to the hotels he reserved for their long list of guests

For the next few days plane after plane landed in Arendelle airport, each carrying several prominent figures, in the music world, from around the globe.

* * *

Anna was too weak to walk still and thus was forced to attend Gerda's friend's event in a wheelchair. The redhead was terribly depressed that Elsa had yet to visit her after nearly an entire week of being awake.

Adgar had to lock his daughter in the bathroom when the blonde had heard. She nearly drove straight to the hospital in her performance attire, which would have ruined all of their plans. Only by the insistence of both her mother and her father, did Elsa agree to follow the plan.

Gerda and Anna left the hospital just past 6:00 PM. The show was scheduled to begin at 6:30 PM. Little did Anna know, the entire hall was already filled by the time she and Gerda left the hospital.

The doctors at the hospital were against Anna leaving the care of a professional for any amount of time, and thus assigned EMT Nelson to watch over her health for the duration of the night. This stipulation was addressed early on, so of course Nelson knew of Elsa's plan.

In the car, Nelson and Anna were chatting in the back, while Gerda drove towards the theater.

"So, Anna … you excited fort the show?"

"Not really … I would rather just stay in bed and sleep …"

Nelson knew that Anna had been suffering from anhedonia, so it was no surprise when the redhead failed to show interest in something they all knew she loved.

"Don't say that! I know you're excited for this show! Hell, even I'm excited to see how it'll play out!" Gerda shot the EMT a warning look through the rear view mirror, one that Anna missed.

"We'll see …" Anna let the conversation drop. In the wake of the silence, Nelson took the redhead's arm and began massaging the muscles beneath, much like she does for her during physical therapy.

The rest of the drive was carried out in silence.

* * *

By the time they arrived at the theater, it was 6:28 PM. Gerda parked the car in front of the entrance and climbed out of the car. Nelson was busy helping Anna out of the back seat and into the wheelchair on the sidewalk. The giant building was devoid of all sounds and signs of life. Anna asked where everyone was, proposing that Gerda got the date of the show wrong, but neither Nelson nor Gerda responded.

They trio entered the building to find an usher standing in the middle of the entrance. He nodded his head to Gerda, Anna and Nelson, before tuning on a dime. He led them towards the doors to the theater, all of which were closed. Anna opened her mouth to ask what was going on, but Nelson shushed her.

When they reached the doors, Nelson pushed Anna to the front of their little party. The usher opened the doors swiftly. The inside of the hall was pitch dark, with only the lights from the entryway casting light on the sloped floor that lead down into the theater hall. Nelson wasted no time pushing Anna's wheelchair into the darkness. The usher closed the door behind them, immersing them in the darkness.

Anna's breathing became labored. The fear and dread that darkness instilled in her nearly pushed her into full hysteria. If it wasn't for the firm, yet gentle, hand that Nelson put on her shoulder she would have undoubted fallen apart.

After a few seconds, Anna's eyes adjusted to the darkness, what she saw caused her to gasp. The entire hall was filled to the brim with people. Every single seat in the absurdly large theater was occupied. She recognized some of the people as her classmates from school, others she didn't recognize. She turned to ask Gerda what was going on, only to find that her guardian was gone, as was Nelson. The EMT's hand had disappeared from her shoulder without her realizing it.

Anna began hyperventilating, until a gentle hand wrapped around her own. The hand was thin and weathered. For a moment Anna thought it was Gerda's, until her eyes adjusted to the darkness enough to see the face of the elderly woman who now held her hand. Anna didn't recognize her, yet she _knew_ her from somewhere. The elderly woman had red hair with streaks of grey, she was dressed in an outfit much like Nelson's, but it looked much older. Her eyes were brimming with tears, yet she was smiling warmly. The elderly woman cleared her throat before she broke the deafening silence that filled the entire theater hall.

"It is so wonderful to see you again … Anna." Anna's brow furrowed in confusion, _'again?'_

"When I first saw you … I wondered what merciless god could ever subject such an innocent soul to such suffering … but now … It fills me with such joy to see you alive and well … and so full of life …" The elderly woman wiped away a stray tear that had fallen down her face. She glanced at her watch before releasing a breathy chuckle and turning back to Anna, who was staring at this familiar woman with wide eyes. Anna had realized who this woman was.

"It's 6:30 now … its time for the show to start … just know that we are here for you … _all_ of _us_ are here because of _you_, because _you_ are incredible, and _you_ deserve all the happiness in the world …"

The elderly woman retreated into the darkness, leaving Anna confused and alone. The redhead fumbled for a grasp on the wheels of her wheelchair and tried to propel herself after the elderly woman, but was stopped when a pair of hands gripped the rear handles. Whipping her head around to tell off whoever was stopping her, Anna stopped short.

Tom, the police officer who risked his career to help Gerda find her after _that _night, held a firm grip on her wheelchair. He flashed a smile to the redhead before righting her chair, pointing her towards the stage through the darkness.

Just as Anna's gaze fell to the red curtain that lay draped across the stage, the entire stage erupted in light. The intensity of the light bouncing off of the curtain briefly blinded her and the audience. In the time it took everyone to adjust to the new brightness, the curtain began moving. The curtain parted to reveal a massive orchestra behind it.

Anna stared in awe at all of the instruments. It was her perfect band. It had all of her favorite instruments in it, including a massive brass section and strings section. Anna recognized several world class players mixed throughout the orchestra, several legendary players were on the French Horn, Tuba, Flute, Trumpet and several in the strings section.

The raised platform where the conductor would stand was empty. Anna waited expectantly to see who would be leading this legendary orchestra, a silent gasp escaped her lips when Gerda appeared to the side of the orchestra on the stage, but she didn't move towards the platform. Instead the elderly woman tapped the mike in front of her before speaking into it, her voice carried beautifully across the entire hall.

"I welcome everyone to tonight's performance. I know you all have been very patient, and as such I will make this short. The piece that you will hear tonight is something of an enigma in musical literature, it has no title and as of this moment it has no ending. What you will hear it the unfinished piece of one of the most talented composers I have ever heard. Unfortunately, the creator of this incomplete masterpiece is unable to conduct this piece for us tonight, so instead a friend will conduct it. That is all I have to say, so please enjoy the show!"

The massive hall remained completely silent following Gerda's exit. Anna turned her attention back to the raised platform, only for the wind to be knocked from her lungs. There, standing on the conductor's platform, was a woman who stood tall and proud. She was facing the audience, but Anna could feel those azure eyes boring into her own teal ones. The woman bowed forward, her platinum blonde braid lifting off her shoulder. As she stood up once more, she spoke in a soft voice that carried through the hall with ease.

"Anna … this is for you."

Elsa immediately turned back to the orchestra, raised her arms, and started the performance.

* * *

In an instant, Anna recognized the music. She wrote the damn song, so of course she would recognize the piece before they got to second bar.

Anna could feel the shame building up within her. She hated this song. She hated everything it stood for and she hated everything about it. It was the culmination of all of her pain and suffering she had tried to shed from herself. She had tried to put it into music in the hopes that it would help her move on, instead it served as a constant reminder of just how worthless she really was. To her, this music wasn't fit to be played on a stage, let alone by such a legendary orchestra.

She wanted it to stop. She could feel the scars on her arms begin to heat up as the shame and fear mounted within her. She began scratching at the gloves that covered her hands, the action doing nothing to stop the arching.

Soon the heat turned to a burning sensation. Before she realized it, she has clawing at her gloves, furiously scratching at her scars. The silver crisscrossing marks throbbed in time with the angry brass, sending such intense waves of pain that she nearly blacked out every time the brass would assault the strings.

But just when the pain became unbearable, a pair of hands clasped over her own. Gerda was kneeling before her, a look of worry on her face. Anna remembered how much she regretted what she almost did to Gerda, so she swallowed her tears and resisted the urge to scratch at her scars, the best she could. She had decided she would try her hardest to resist the temptation to hurt herself again, and for Gerda she would do her best.

Before she realized it, the first movement ended. Anna had been so engrossed in the burning sensation on her arms that the entirety of the movement passed her by.

Once the music had stopped, Gerda glanced back at the stage in worry. Anna, following her line of sight, found what she was looking at. Elsa was standing on the stage, her shoulders were shaking and her arm was pressed to her eyes. The blonde was crying in front of so many people, but when Anna looked back to the audience, she found that nearly everyone has crying to some degree. Some people were dabbing at their eyes with tissues, while some were clutching to those next to them as they silently cried, and yet more were just sitting in silence as tears streamed down their faces.

When Anna's gaze returned to the stage, she found Elsa's tear stained face searching the audience for her own. The blonde seemed to have forgotten where Anna was, but when she found her the blonde's face broke out into a jaw splitting grin. Their eyes were locked together as Elsa gave her the warmest smile to date. Anna could practically see the love in the blonde's eyes. Elsa's look stole Anna's breath away, and for the first time since the performance started, the throbbing pain in her arms faded away.

Anna's gaze snapped to her arms, the throbbing pain stopped and she could no longer feel each individual scar. She looked to Gerda, then her arms, then back to Elsa. The blonde was still smiling at her, and Anna could feel the raging monster that was her anxiety, fear and shame falling into a deep slumber. Leaving her completely at peace for the first time in years.

Tears sprung forth from her eyes, but for the first time ever, they were tears of happiness. Elsa saw her crying with a smile, and turned back to the orchestra. She wiped away her tears, before she raised her hands and started the next movement.

* * *

The short movement that followed the first was restarted after a false start. The first chair French Horn player, who was responsible for a very important solo in the movement hadn't recovered completely from the tears she shed from the first movement.

She bowed in apology, but the audience didn't seem annoyed. If anything, they all seemed understanding.

Following the commencement of the movement, another figure slowly walked through the darkness towards Anna. As they got closer, Anna realized it was the elderly woman from earlier, the woman who Anna recognized as the nurse who watched over her in the hospital following her rescue from the kidnappers.

She kneeled down in front of the wheelchair, next to Gerda. In a soft voice that didn't over power the music being played for those around them, but was loud enough for Anna to hear her, the woman spoke.

"Anna … do you remember me?" Anna couldn't speak. Her heart had lodged itself in her throat, so she nodded her head instead.

"I'm glad … I was a member of the recovery team that went into the warehouse to get you out. Afterwards, I requested to be put on inpatient duty so I could take care of you … you were so small and weak back then … after you transferred to the rehab facility I prayed you would find a family. I prayed for your happiness, and I prayed for your health … I couldn't believe it when I received a call a couple months ago asking if I would be willing to come to Arendelle to be a part of this …" The elderly woman was tearing up. Gerda handed her a tissue, which she accepted graciously.

"I'm sure you don't realize this, but this was all put together by her-" she pointed at Elsa, who was leading the massive orchestra through the music with long flowing waves of her arms and baton. "-she wanted to put this whole thing together to show you just how important you are. She wants to prove to you just how incredible she knows you are. She wishes she could tell you this herself, but she's busy directing one of the greatest orchestras in the world through the most beautiful piece in existence …"

The woman stood from her spot on the floor before giving Anna's hand one last squeeze. She spoke one last time before she returned to her seat.

"Come find me when the show is over, I want to get to know the girl who survived through such cruelty and still has the strength to live."

Before Anna even realized it, the next movement came to a close. Elsa didn't drop her posture, meaning she was prepared to launch straight into the next movement. The blonde peered over her shoulder, looking for Anna. When their eyes met, she flashed a brilliant smile, before initiating the music.

* * *

Anna didn't feel the usual tug at her scars whenever the singular violent string would strike out at the band. She didn't feel the need to cut her pain away. For the first time ever, she could listen to the music without fearing what it would force her to do to herself. She still thought the music was subpar at best, but at least it wasn't subpar trash that pushed her to cut anymore.

Whenever the flute would spring into the music, Elsa would sneak a glance over at Anna. The constant looks told Anna that the blonde knew exactly whom that flute represented, the realization caused a fierce blush to bloom across her face. Elsa blushed in response when she noticed the redhead's red face.

A light chuckle resounded through the crowd at the conductor's antics and in response to Elsa's plan coming back to bite her.

* * *

As the movement neared the second half, Anna instinctively lowered her gaze to the floor, her shoulders hiking up in reflex to hide away from the prying eyes around her.

As the tempo picked up, so too did Anna's heart rate. Gerda squeezed her hands to remind her she was there for her.

Slowly, Anna raised her gaze to look at the orchestra. Every musician was playing their heart out, trying to match the same intensity of emotion Anna had infused into the music. Elsa's arms were hammering out the beat for the band, desperately trying to keep up with the tempo and not miss cuing in the different sections. Anna could see the sweat dripping off her brow in effort. She wondered why the blonde was working so hard for something she wrote. It wasn't worthy of such honest effort.

The audience was on the edge of their seat. The entire hall had been swept along by the tempo and raw emotion in the music. Anna grimaced as just how hard the musicians were pounding on their instruments. Several bows in the strings section lay broken on the floor, the musicians pulling out the spares they had prepared in case of a break. Every musician in the brass section was red in the face from pure exertion as they pushed the air through their instruments faster and harder. The woodwinds looked very similar the brass. The percussion section was a mess of mallets and limbs striking their instruments.

The tension in the hall made it hard the breath. Anna clutched at her dress when she realized she could feel the beat in her chest. She could feel her heart beating in time with the music, and from what she could see of the rest of the audience they could feel the beat just as she could.

The volume grew with the intensity; it felt as if the very walls of the theater hall would give way under the force of the music that filled the hall. The music approached the climax. Anna knew that.

Suddenly, the band fell to silence, leaving the strings to carry on the momentum. The musicians played so furiously the instruments creaked under the force being applied to them. Bows splintered, and strings frayed.

Just as the strings crested the final apex Elsa spun around, raised her baton above her head with both hands and snapped it in two just as the music met its end.

A beat of silence followed the snap of Elsa's baton, before the entire hall erupted in deafening applause. Anna had to clap her hands over her ears. The cheering of the audience easily surpassed the volume of the orchestra, the floor shook with the reverberating sound waves that erupted from the applause.

Elsa bowed low on the stage, before extending her hand in Anna's direction. A spotlight illuminated the redhead in the center of the audience. The surrounding crowd was already looking in her direction, directing their praise and applause to her.

Anna was stunned. All of these people were cheering in earnest for something she wrote. She could see that it was no act. Every person here truly loved the music. They enjoyed listening to music that she wrote. She could see the faces of the people around her, some faces were stained with tears, others were beaming with joy. Anna clutched at her dress again, she could feel the roar of the crowd reverberating in her chest.

In that instant, she decided that she enjoyed feeling the cheers and applause of the crowd reverberate in her chest almost as much as she enjoyed feeling the music in the same way.

* * *

Following the end of the show, two detectives that had been keeping watch over Anna on Tom's flanks, stepped forward to wheel her up onto the stage. Elsa was there waiting for her. The blonde offered her a hand to help her stand, and together the two of them bowed to the audience. The enormous mass of people renewed their applause in response.

After the clapping had died down and some of the patrons began to file out of the theater, Anna felt a hand tap on her shoulder. Turning around Anna saw the biggest names in orchestra standing side by side behind her, their instruments in their hands. The woman holding the French Horn cleared her throat first.

"Its an honor to meet the composer of this piece. I think I speak for all of us when I say that we all felt the emotions you put into this piece, and we would be overjoyed if you would contact us again to play the finished version."

The lead string chimed in when the French Horn player finished talking.

"I've never played a piece that caused me to nearly break my instrument, let alone one that required I bring a spare bow to the performance-" Anna was about to apologize, but was cut off when the musician started talking again. "-Your piece is one of a kind, I look forward to seeing the sheet music for the finished product!"

Anna didn't know what to say. She had nearly caused them all to either damage their beloved musical instruments, or caused them to harm themselves with the intensity of the music, yet all of them seemed to enjoy the challenge. Anna opened her mouth to say something, anything, but the tears in her eyes and the lump in her throat prevented her from forming words. Elsa stepped in to save her.

"I think I speak for Anna when I say that she is beyond happy to hear such words of praise from such esteemed artists, and if I have any say in what's to come in the near future, then I promise to contact each and every one of you when Anna here finishes the piece!"

That seemed to appease the musicians, for they started their retreat to the side of the stage and went about packing up to leave. As they were passing, one of the last musicians held out a card to Anna before he spoke up.

"If you have any other pieces, not just this one, that you want to hear being played by a live orchestra just give me a call. For such a talented composer, the least I could do is offer my services and the services of my orchestra to you and offer to help you continue to make even more amazing music."

Anna accepted the card with both hands while nodding furiously. Elsa watched in silence, all the while smiling broadly.

Before she could recover, the two police officers from earlier stepped up to Anna. They both shook her hand before introducing themselves.

"Good evening, Anna. You most likely don't know who we are …" Anna shook her head before glancing apologetically at both of the men. The older man nodded in understanding before continuing.

"We are the detectives who were in charge of your case … My name is Henry Lynch and this here is Frank, he was shadowing me as my junior detective at the time. Frank is the one that pointed out to us the lack of evidence that you were still with your parents in Vegas. He is also the one who found the lead that led us to you."

Frank turned to his mentor with a look of exasperation.

"Cut it out, you and I both know that it was by both out efforts that we found that lead!" Henry raised his hands in surrender, while Frank returned to address Anna.

"We were the ones who were responsible for finding you … so it is our fault it took us so long to rescue you … had it not been for our negligence in missing that key witness-"

"No!" Anna's voice returned to her when she realized that these two men, who had saved her from a lifetime of suffering, we blaming themselves for taking so long. The redhead's outburst startled both the men and Elsa who was silently watching. Anna took a shaky breath before continuing.

"I mean … please … don't blame yourselves. Had it not been for either of you I would not be here today. Rather than dwelling on what would have been had things gone differently, I wish to thank the both of you finding me and for saving me from a lifetime of pain and suffering. So please, don't tarnish your good deeds that I see as a miracle in my life …"

Elsa reached down and wrapped her hand in one of Anna's gloved ones before squeezing it tightly. The two officers conceded and both nodded in agreement before bidding Anna a farewell and walking off.

* * *

After several more people from the investigation, including the babysitter who used to look after Anna in her home, came forward to exchange words with Anna, the stage was cleared.

Anna looked out to the crowd, to see that while most of the people had left there were still a good number that remained seated. Among them were Kristoff, Olaf, Eugene, Rapunzel, and the rest of the gang; as well as Gerda and a large portion of the music program's student body. An older couple sat in the front row, the woman looked strikingly similar to Elsa, except with darker hair; the man sat tall, in a regal posture. Anna was instantly reminded of her blonde friend. It took her a moment to realize the couple was Elsa's parents, when they noticed Anna staring they both waved with warm smiles.

The rest of the remaining audience consisted of all of the people from the investigation that came to talk to her, including the elderly nurse who had taken care of her in the hospital.

Elsa, who had been standing next to Anna the entire time, moved the redhead back towards the wheelchair, before easing her into it again. The blonde then stepped around the wheelchair to kneel down in front of it. Elsa looked of worry; her brow was furrowed as she inhaled a shaky breath before speaking to the redhead.

"Anna … there are some men here who wish to speak with you. My father pulled some strings and managed to arrange for them to be escorted here. If, at any time, you want them to go away or if you want to leave just close your eyes and squeeze my hand … can you do that?"

Anna was thoroughly confused, but she understood Elsa's instructions so she nodded her head slowly. Elsa took a moment to stare into Anna's eyes, before standing again and returning to her place beside her, her hand never once leaving the redhead's.

Elsa's attention turned to the far side of the stage. Movement drew Anna's attention too. From the shadows, that hid everything off stage, stepped Tom. Anna instantly recognized him. He had made it a habit to stop by the hospital to check in on her throughout the months that she was in a coma. After she had woken up he was the first to visit, after Gerda.

Tom now stood half in the light of the stage lights and half in the shadow of stage-left. He took one glance at Elsa, who nodded in response before stepping into the light completely. In his left hand he held an empty handcuff, the chain to its pair stretched back into the darkness of stage-left. He pulled on the chain as he made his way across the stage.

On the other end of the chain stood a man, shackled at both his feet and his hands. He wore a bright orange jumpsuit and pure white sneakers. Sewn into the orange jumpsuit, just over his heart, was what looked like a serial number just below the printed letters that spelled 'INMATE.'

The man was sickly thin, almost as bad as Anna herself. His cheeks were sunken in, his hair was greying, and his eyes were bloodshot. He looked ragged and weak, his steps were short and shuffled, his shoulders slumping.

Behind him was another man who looked much of the same, both were wearing the same clothes. The only difference between the were their serial numbers, and their gait. The man in the back walked with heavy steps, the sound of his feet slapping the floor caused a buzzing to manifest in Anna's ears. She _knew_ those foot steps.

Tom halted the criminal's advance when they were a good distance from Anna and Elsa. He pushed the man in the back of the line up until he was standing next to the other.

Elsa was now looking at Anna to see if she was giving the signal that said she needed the men to leave, but Anna was just staring straight ahead, not doing anything.

The buzzing in her ears persisted; she couldn't recall why those footsteps sounded so familiar, until her gaze connected with the second man. His eyes shone with hate and anger. The realization made her gasp, the sudden noise made Elsa next to her jump in surprise.

The noise also set the fuming inmate off, prompting him to lunge for the redhead in the wheelchair, but before he could even take his second step Tom slammed his baton into the back of his head. The man fell to the ground in an unconscious heap. Tom called his fellow officers on the radio to take the unconscious man back to the police cruiser. The other man in an orange jumpsuit had remained calm and quiet, only showing emotion in the form of a scared flinch when his fellow inmate attacked.

This other criminal refused to meet eyes with Anna and was looking at everything other than the girl in the wheelchair. Anna didn't feel the same buzzing in her head when she looked at this person, she didn't feel the underlying fear that she did with the other one. The last remaining inmates reluctance to meet her gaze prompted Anna to move.

Her hand pulled Elsa along as the redhead pushed her wheelchair forward, towards the man in orange. Tom saw what Anna was planning and moved in to latch onto the man's restraints directly, thus preventing him from making any threatening movements.

Anna stopped when she was within arms reach of the man, who still refused to look her in the eye. Anna's eyes roamed over the man before her, her eyes caught sight of something familiar on the man's wrist. Innumerable red lines crisscrossed all along the man's wrists. Some were fresh while others were older and had long since healed. Anna lifted her own arm, turning it palm side up and removing the elbow length glove that covered it, to show the man the scars that marred her own wrists.

The man's eyes locked with the thin wrist before him, before they lifted and locked with the redhead's teal ones. Anna's brow furrowed in confusions as she spoke in barely a whisper.

"Wh- … who are you?" The man burst out in a pained bark when he heard her voice. Tears began streaming down his face. He used his own shoulder to try and wipe away the tears, before responding in a hoarse and broken voice.

"I … I'm … I'm one of your k- … _kidnappers_." Anna immediately snapped her arm back to her body, her hand that remained intertwined with Elsa's squeezed into a vice like grip.

Elsa nearly motioned for Tom to take the criminal away, but Anna spoke up before she could.

"But … I thought … wasn't _he_ my kidnapper?" Anna gestured to where the police officers had carried the aggressive criminal off.

"I … I only … I only remember the man with the heavy steps … I thought it was only _him_ … I don't remember _you_ … I remember _him_ from the sound of his feet … that same sound would always be followed by the pain or the food … what … when … did you?"

Anna was confused. That entire time of her life revolved around those heavy steps that always told her a beating was in store for her, those foot steps would tell her when food arrived and when the pain arrived. She couldn't recall ever hearing a shuffle of feet before a beating or before food … until.

"The last time … I don't remember the steps … but I thought that was because I was about to d- … die … so I figured I just missed them … but I didn't … did I?"

The man was silently sobbing. The shaking from his cries racked his entire body. The tremor caused his knees to buckle, throwing him to the floor. The grown man proceeded to sob violently on the floor, Tom was barking orders at him to stand up, but before the police officer to find a grip to bring him up, his broken voice sounded through the sobs.

"I … I'm so sorry! … I was so scared! … I didn't know what to do! … _He_ told me to- … to get rid of the evidence if anything happened to him! … but … but I was so scared … I wish I was never born … then I wouldn't have done the things I've done! I wouldn't have hurt you like I did! I wouldn't be this horrible excuse for a human being! Please! Please forgiv- … No … I don't deserve to be forgiven … I've done more than can ever be forgiven … I-" The rest of the man's cries fell into unintelligible rambling and sobs.

Anna was in shock, she always envisioned her tormentor to be this cruel, demon of a man, not unlike the first man who had been knocked out. She never thought the people who caused her such suffering would be someone as pitiful as this man before her. Before she could stop herself, she heard her voice pass through her lips.

"Do you regret it?"

The man's eyes snapped to her's. The man wrapped his right hand around his left wrist, applying painful pressure onto the many scars that lay imbedded in his skin.

"Every day and every night, I mark myself for every nightmare and for every time I think about it. I know I can never atone for what I have done to you, for what I _allowed_ to be done to you. I … I …"

Anna squeezed Elsa's hand and her eyes closed. Elsa immediately motioned for Tom to escort the prisoner out of the building. When Anna opened her eyes again she was looking at Elsa, who was kneeling in front of her again. Elsa was smiling warmly at her, her eyes were red and puffy from all the crying she had done tonight.

"I'm so proud of you, Anna. Really, really proud."

Anna beamed back in response.

Anna didn't even realize that she could no longer feel every scar on her body. For the first time in her life, she felt at peace. She knew, without a shadow of a doubt in her mind, that the nightmares would stop, that the burning had stopped, that she could close her eyes and not see that supply closet ever again.

Anna's eyes began droop, her head lulling to the side. Elsa leaned up and planted a kiss to her brow before whispering to the quickly fading redhead.

"_Go to sleep, I'll be here when you wake up."_

Anna fell into the first peaceful sleep in years, a smile gracing her lips as she drifted off.

* * *

**End of Chapter 10**


	13. Chapter 11

**Pink Mist – Chapter 11**

* * *

Anna awoke with a start, the memory of the performance still ringing in her head. It took her a few labored breaths to realize she was back in her hospital bed. She looked around the room for Gerda, but was happily surprised when she found that it was Elsa asleep in a chair next to her.

The blonde had apparently sat down in the wheelchair that carried Anna back into the hospital, and nodded off before finding somewhere more fitting to sleep. The blonde was still in her performance attire, which consisted of a tightly fitting tuxedo and vest. The suit was jet black with silver buttons and cuff links. Anna pried her eyes away from the sleeping girl when she realized she was staring intently at how well the suit hugged Elsa's figure.

Anna heard the heart monitor on the other side of the bed increase the speed of its beeping in time with her heart beat. The now blushing redhead prayed that the noise wouldn't wake the blonde.

Her silent embarrassment was cut short when the distinct click of heels echoed off the tile flooring of the hall just outside her room. The door was open in an effort to keep the air flowing and the room cool. Anna turned her head towards the new sound, only to find herself staring at the older couple she saw at the theater, the couple she assumed were Elsa's parents.

The woman entered first, followed by the man. Both were still in the same clothes Anna had last seen them in. The woman was wearing an elegant purple dress that flowed down to the floor, the man was wearing what looked to be a military uniform with regal-looking gold accents and medals on it.

The woman saw the state of her daughter and cooed at her appearance.

"Oh, Elsa … leave it to my daughter to fall asleep in such nice clothes …" The older woman leaned down to properly situate her daughter in the wheelchair. "… Though I don't blame you, you must be exhausted from these past few days …"

Anna wanted to say something, anything, to greet the parents of her best friend. But she struggled to decide what to say. Idun seemed to pick up on her hesitance and greeted her instead, albeit in a whisper so to not wake her daughter.

"Hello Anna, its so nice to meet. I've heard so much about you from Elsa. I'm just going to take my daughter to one of the employee changing rooms and help her into something more comfortable … but don't worry she'll be back before you know it. My husband, Adgar, will be keeping you company in the mean time."

Idun wheeled Elsa out of the room before Anna could even respond. Anna felt a pair of eyes land on her, the tension in the air rose in tandem with her heart rate. As she slowly brought her eyes towards the foot of her bed the insistent beeping of the monitor began to race. As her eyes traveled up the man's black and gold uniform the tempo of the beeping steadily rose as well. When Anna finally met the man's gaze, her heart monitor was tripping along at an impossible rate. The beeping was so fast that an alert had already been sent out to a nearby nurse.

Adgar held the redhead's gaze with his out icy stare. His lack of movement and greeting only served to drive Anna's heart rate up further. As the beeping began to plateau, a twitch in the man's eye caused Anna to flinch.

The motion set off the man, who immediately barked out in laughter. The sudden sound of the man laughing set Anna's face a flame, the blush spread to the very tips of her ears. When the man finally recovered, he spoke, all the while wiping tears of laughter from his eyes.

"Oh! By the gods! She was right! She was absolutely right! Oh, ah ha!" the man's laughter redoubled. His words earned him a confused look form Anna. The man responded back in fragmented sentences broken by laughter.

"Elsa! My little Elsa didn't want me meeting you alone, ha ha! She said- … She said I would give you a heart attack … and she was right!"

Anna was close to tears at this point, out of sheer mortification. She had just made a fool of herself in front of Elsa's father, this night couldn't have gone any worse.

"Oh, please forgive me. That was very rude of me. It's just … I've always been a bit competitive, which is most likely why my company has flourished so well, and it seems that my daughter has inherited this awful characteristic from me. So when the two of us find something we disagree on, we can't help but bet out pride on the outcome. This time it would appear I have lost."

Anna still had on a look of puzzlement, so the CEO proceeded with proper introductions.

"Ah, its seems I have forgotten my manners yet again. My name is Adgar Winter, husband to my beautiful wife Idun Winter, who just wheeled my daughter, Elsa Winter, out of here mere moments ago. You must be Anna Baker … My daughter will not stop talking about you." When a look of worry flashed across Anna's face, the CEO jumped in to reassure her.

"All good things, I assure you. Elsa is really quite fond of you … though, in the past I wondered why that was exactly …" The CEO trailed off his sentence to see how Anna would react to his implications. He was fully aware of the extent of Elsa's feelings for Anna, but he felt he needed to test his daughter's girlfriend. Unfortunately, the flow of the conversation steered down a path he did not expect.

"To be honest, sir. I don't really think I am worthy of your daughter's attention. I mean, she has been nothing but a saint to me … and I wish nothing but happiness for her … but I don't think she'll be able to- … I think she would live an easier life, one with much more happiness and less burdens, if she kept her distance from me … she has already shown me that I'm not alone and she is the reason I'm not writhing in agony right now … but I can't help but feel that if she stays too close to me, that I may hurt her … I may be fine right now, but … but _these_ scars will never heal … not completely … I fear one day I may feel compelled to do something … something that would cut into her much deeper than any of the incisions I've marked by wrists with … I think it would be for the best, for Elsa, if you made sure I couldn't be near her, so that I couldn't drag her down with me …"

Anna's nerves had gotten the better of her. She hadn't meant to admit all of that to Elsa's _father_, but at the same time she knew she wouldn't be able to lie to the man.

Adgar's gaze softened. Elsa had informed him that Anna had a very low opinion of herself and that she often questioned why Elsa even spent time with her. He knew that what Elsa felt for this girl was genuine, and from what he could discern from the redhead's self-deprecating ramble, she cared a great deal about Elsa's happiness and wellbeing. In nearly every aspect of her rant, Elsa was her primary concern. That alone was enough proof to sate his curiosity; he made a mental note to tell Elsa about what her girlfriend said to him just then.

Adgar then decided to change the topic of conversation to much friendlier ones.

"So, Elsa tells me that you love making music … but I must know, did you really compose that piece my daughter conducted?"

Anna nodded, before launching into a music-fanatic rant. The gloomy tones from before already hidden behind her mask of friendliness.

* * *

"mMm- … Mom! Stop it! I'm not a little kid anymore, I can change myself!"

"Oh hush! You expect me to believe that you can get changed properly when you can't even muster the strength to hold your head up straight?" Idun was currently wrestling her half-asleep daughter out of her tuxedo, and into a set of more comfortable clothes. Idun didn't have enough time to drive back to the house for clothes, but was lucky enough to run into the EMT, Nelson, who was kind enough to let Elsa borrow a pair of her scrubs. The baby blue scrubs were a little big on Elsa's smaller frame, but were infinitely more comfortable than the constricting fabric of the tuxedo.

Idun made short work of changing her daughter. Even after years had passed since the last time she helped her daughter with any kind of clothes, she was happy to find that she hadn't lost her touch. In less than a minute, Elsa was sitting in the wheelchair again, dressed in the hospital's baby blue scrubs.

Just as Idun was about to address her daughter, someone burst through the locker room door, startling both Idun and Elsa. Nelson had vaulted through the door when her pager buzzed. The only patient she had been assigned to was Anna, so she instantly went to fetch Elsa and Idun, who were in the locker room on the way to Anna's room. Nelson was slightly out of breath when she finally reached the two women.

"Elsa! It Anna! I was just paged, something is wrong. Her heart monitor is going crazy!"

Elsa vaulted out of the wheelchair and was sprinting down the hall towards Anna before Idun could even properly register what Nelson had said. It took her a moment to absorb what had been said to her, before she too took off down the hall, closely followed by Nelson.

Unfortunately, the closest locker room to Anna's room was still a good 10-minute walk away in the giant, maze like hospital. On numerous occasions, Elsa had sprinted down a wrong hallway, only to have to be retrieved by Nelson, before they set off in the correct direction. The entire trip ended up taking nearly 10 minutes with all of Elsa's rushed detours; they would have made just as much time had they calmly walked.

Elsa was panting at this point; pure adrenalin and worry were pumping through her veins. She nearly broke the door off its hinges when she entered the room. When her eyes fell upon a smiling and laughing Anna, all of the tension left her body. The sheer relief she felt propelled her forward into a crushing hug with Anna, who was floundering around in confusion and worry.

As the tension seeped out of Elsa's body, her fatigue washed over her and in an instant she was asleep, her arms still wrapped around Anna.

Idun and Nelson, who were second into the room, arrived to find their daughter asleep, Anna floundering over Elsa's sudden arrival and hug, and Adgar who was laughing at the entire scene. Soon enough, Idun and Nelson joined Adgar in their laughter, leaving Anna to wonder what was so funny.

When the laughter died down, Nelson stepped forward to inspect Anna. She appeared to be all right, but the heart monitor had sent out an alert, meaning something happened.

"Are you okay, Anna? I got an alert for tachycardia; your heart rate jumped up past 120 beats per minute … what happened? Are you feeling any chest pains? Trouble breathing? Anything?"

Anna hesitated, before glancing at Adgar. The older man cleared his throat before speaking up.

"Ah, yes … you see that was my fault … it seems I really as intimidating as I am told. I didn't mean to, but it seems I really gave her a fright, which resulted in the heart rate spike you were alerted about …" Adgar was rubbing the back of his neck, his guilt was showing through his demeanor. Idun walked up and gave him a scolding slap across the shoulder.

The man clutched at his arm in mock hurt, causing his wife to look away in indifference, before breaking the silence.

"My husband has the terrible habit of scarring anyone unfortunate enough to be left in the room with him. Really, it is because of him that we keep having to hire a new Personal Assistant every month!"

Idun's attention was drawn to her daughter once more, who was still locked in an embrace around Anna. The woman chuckled to herself before moving behind er daughter to pull her away from the bedridden redhead.

"Come along, Elsa. If you wish to sleep, then there is a bench just over there." Idun motioned towards the bench that was up against the wall, just below the window.

Elsa only shook her head, sleepily, and pulled herself tighter against Anna. Idun sighed in defeat, before switching her efforts from pulling Elsa away, to pushing her daughter up onto the bed. Nelson moved in to assist her. In mere seconds Elsa was fully in the hospital bed, lying next to Anna with her arms wrapped tightly around the redhead's waist.

Anna, who had began to blush when she realized what Idun and Nelson were doing, was now red from the tips of her ears, down below the neckline of her hospital gown. Her blush only intensified when Elsa snuggled even closer to Anna, which caused the trio of adults to chuckle in response, before Idun addressed the redhead.

"Oh! You two look so cute together! I must take a photo!" Idun proceeded to whip out her phone, before snapping several pictures of the couple. Once the older woman was satisfied, she latched onto her husband and Nelson, before dragging them towards the door.

Adgar spoke up first.

"Idun, what are you doing? I thought we came here to have a serious talk with Elsa and Anna?" His wife snapped back instantly.

"Well, that'll certainly be difficult with Elsa passed out as she is, in her girlfriend's lap." That comment was immediately caused a certain redhead to call out.

"W-w-what are you talking about? G- … girlfriend? Y-you just mean me … as a friend who is also a girl … right? R-r-right …?" All three adults stopped to stare at the flustered redhead with blank expressions.

A look of understanding passed across all of their faces when they glanced down at Elsa, then back to Anna. Adgar proceeded to slap his hand over his face, Idun was pinching her the bridge of her nose, and Nelson was shaking her head with her eyes closed. All three of them sighed in defeat before making the trudge back to the staff break room, where they had been spending their time so to not disturb Elsa and Anna.

* * *

**End of Chapter 11**


	14. Chapter 12

**Pink Mist – Chapter 12**

* * *

"Elsa … How long are you planning on dragging this out?"

Elsa sighed. Ever since the concert and the night at the hospital, her parents have been badgering her about when she was going to confess to Anna. She never realized that her parents thought she and Anna were already together, so she was rather surprised when she woke up to Anna asking why her parents called them 'girlfriends.' Now, sitting at the diner table across from her parents, Elsa was forced to explain the best she could.

"I … I don't think now is the best time to tell her …"

Adgar and Idun shared worried glances from the other side of the diner table. Adgar was the first to respond.

"Elsa, I never got the opportunity to tell you what Anna and I talked about in the hospital yesterday when you were off changing with your mother … Honestly, the shocking revelation from that you and Anna are still just _friends_ made me forget about it until I woke up this morning …"

Elsa put down her eating utensils and gazed at her father. She wasn't aware that Anna and her father talked. She figured he had just stood there scaring the life out of the redhead, hence why Nelson's pager went off with a tachycardia alert. Worry crept into her mind …

_What if her heart rate spiked because of something Dad said?_

Elsa gaze turned cold and piercing. Adgar immediately put down his knife and fork and whipped his mouth with a napkin, before raising his hands in a defensive position.

"Hold your horses Elsa! I did not cause your girlfriend any harm!" Elsa's gaze softened, but before she could speak, Adgar continued.

"But we did talk some, mostly about music and about how she composing that piece … But I …" Adgar shifted his gaze away from his daughter.

He was ashamed of what he pulled out of Anna. His heart bled for the redhead, and he hated himself for putting her in a position where she had to degrade herself so much.

Idun laid a comforting hand on her husbands clenched fist, silently encouraging him to continue. Elsa as looking on in confused worry.

"I asked her why you were wasting your time with her-" Elsa's jaw clenched in fury, her own hands balling into fists, "… I had meant it as a small test. I thought the two of you were already dating, so I figured she would say that you loved her and that she loved you … but … but she said something much worse … she said that she doesn't think that she is worthy of your attention. She said she was worried that the temptation to cut might return and that if she ever succeeded she was terrified that she would hurt you in turn. She said it would be better if I kept you two apart-"

"You can't!" Elsa felt her heart throb in pain at ever word. Tears were edge of spilling down her face. She knew Anna had a low opinion of herself, but she never suspected that Anna felt the way she did. She thought she would wait until Anna healed a bit before confessing. She thought Anna was free of the darkness, but now she knew that Anna was still stuck in the same mind set.

Sure Anna knew she was a good composer, and sure she now knew that she could have a future beyond the suffering and the scars that littered her body, but she still thought of herself as something broken. Anna still saw herself as a lost cause that would only drag down anyone foolish enough to stay near her.

Elsa knew that if she followed Anna's self-sacrificing wishes that she would only doom Anna to the same dark and self-destructive path she had recently saved her from. To Elsa, Anna wasn't a broken girl who was beyond repair. To Elsa, Anna was simply looking at herself through a broken mirror.

Elsa was so lost in her own thoughts; she didn't hear her father calling her name. Only when Adgar had raised his voice did she snap back to reality.

"Elsa! I said I have not intention on ever separating the two of you! You told your mother and me that you couldn't see a future without Anna … and I think that what you said is truer than you thought. I fear that if were ever to drop out of her life completely, Anna wouldn't … I fear she wouldn't have a future … She cares about you, a lot. I'm convinced she is in love with you and simply doesn't know it. If she is willing to face her demons, those same demons that nearly drove her to kill herself, for the sake of your wellbeing and happiness … then… If that isn't love, then I don't know what is …"

Elsa was clutching at her heart. She understood what her father was trying to say. She had hoped that Anna felt the same way she did, but she was terrified of the possibility that she didn't. If she was being honest with herself, she had been putting off her confession out of fear. She didn't know what she would do if Anna didn't feel the same way, she feared her rejection would place a wedge between them, and she knew that if Anna lost one of her only supports the chances she would fall back on old habits was very high.

But if Adgar was right, and that Anna really did like her the same way, then … what was holding her back?

Elsa couldn't keep the smile off her face. She would confess to Anna.

She did feel slightly ashamed; she was disappointed with herself for not being confident enough to confess until she knew there was little chance for failure. She wished she could have been the confident one in her future relationship with Anna, but the very prospect of even having a relationship with Anna quickly wiped away her worries and replaced them with a blissful feeling.

Adgar and Idun saw their daughters smile and noticed she was lost in thought. They instantly knew that their efforts had succeeded. They had hoped that this new information would motivate Elsa to confess, and it had. They both mirrored their daughter's smile and began plotting.

* * *

"Anna?" Gerda called from her seat next to Anna's hospital bed.

"Hmm?" Anna pulled off her headphones. She had been making music all day, lots of people had sent composition requests to her earlier, and she was getting a head start on those requests.

Gerda put down her book, marking her place with the ribbon.

"Do you mind if we talk? It feels like its been forever since we just chatted …"

"Of course! What do you want to talk about?"

"Well, how are … you feeling?" Gerda's hesitation did not go unnoticed by Anna, but knew what Gerda wanted to ask about. She flashed her guardian a brilliant smile before answering.

"If you're asking about my scars they feel great. I can't remember the last time I got a good nights sleep without being woken up by them throbbing. They haven't hurt once since the concert! As how _I_ am feeling … I've never been better. I don't feel like I'm drowning in pain, I feel like an infinite number of possibilities have been opened before me!"

Gerda wasn't smiling. She wasn't happy. She _knew_ Anna. She _knew _that all of Anna's insecurities couldn't be cleared so easily. She saw the mask the redhead was wearing. She saw straight through it, and she knew Anna was suffering. In the past she had accepted Anna's fake emotions, she had accepted her lies in the hopes that Anna would open up to her when she needed to. But with recent events, and after her attempted to suicide, Gerda promised herself she would no longer turn a blind eye.

With a glare as cold as ice and a tone even more so, Gerda cut through Anna's joyous rant.

"Tell me what's wrong." Anna acted confused She was hoping Gerda would be content with having a 'happy' daughter. But she wasn't. Yet Anna still tried to play off her fake emotions as her true feelings.

"What are you talking about? I've never felt better, what could possibly be 'wrong' with how things are-" Anna was cut off when Gerda leveled her with the 'Dean Gaze.'

"You _are_ going to tell me what is bothering you. I _will_ drag it out of you if I have to." Gerda was through playing the mask game, Anna needed to know that she wasn't just going to roll over and play along when Anna flashed her a nearly genuine smile.

Anna fell silent. Her last line of defense that was instilled within her from a very early age. If nothing else works, maybe falling silent will make _them_ go away. At the same time, Anna dropped Gerda's gaze and began shrinking in on herself. Her shoulders hiked up to her ears as her knees were drawn up against her chest. Her arms wrapped around her folded legs, clutching at the hospital gown she wore.

A pang of regret pierced Gerda's heart, before she steeled her resolve. This was just another avoidance tactic. Anna was trying to make herself look small and weak in an attempt to discourage any aggressor that fought their way past her false personality.

"_That_ may have worked for you in the past, Anna … but there is a fundamental difference between your parents, your kidnappers and me …" Anna peaked out from her fetal position at Gerda. A look of pure terror was rooted deep within those teal irises.

"… your parents … nor your kidnappers … none of them loved you … not like I do." Anna's head shot up from her knees. Her features were an amalgamation of hope, fear, and shock. Gerda sat there with the warmest smile she could manage, silently encouraging Anna out of her self-imposed emotional shell she put up.

"I know I've never said it up until now … I guess its because I feared that your parents had said it to you before. I didn't want you to think that I was using the phrase in the same way your parents did. I didn't want you to think I was just saying it so you would trust me, and constantly be expecting me to lash out at you."

Anna didn't change positions, but her head was no longer hidden behind her knees. Instead it rest on top of them, giving Gerda an unobstructed view of her face. Anna's features still contained that same fear, but the shock and hope was gone, yet Gerda could tell Anna was not battling with herself.

The older woman was hoping Anna would open up complete and abandon the fetal position she maintained, but she accepted Anna's progress and decided to push towards the original topic.

"I know your struggling with something. I know its tearing you up inside, and I know you have no hope of figuring it out on your own without help. Now I'm not saying you are unintelligent. Nearly half the musical world, myself included, now know just how much of a genius you are … but some things, you just can't find the right answer on your own …" Anna gave a tiny sniffle, that was all the confirmation Gerda needed to know that Anna accepted her help.

"I also have a general idea of what's troubling you too. It could only be a handful of things, though I am nearly certain it's the one I have in mind …" Gerda took a deep breath, Anna instinctively took a smaller breath with her.

"You're worried about Elsa. I'm not sure what about Elsa worries you, but I know the root of your troubles is Elsa. So tell me … what about Elsa is bothering you?"

Anna remained silent, as a searing blush bloomed across her face. Gerda failed to notice in the poor lighting of the hospital room.

"If you don't say something, I'll start sending pictures of you in your unflattering lazy-Sunday clothes to Elsa~" Fear gripped Anna's heart.

"NO! No, no, no, no! Fine, I'll talk! I'll talk!" Anna had lunged forward towards Gerda when she finally spoke. The new orientation alerted Gerda of the redhead's, incredibly red face. A pulse of joy racked Gerda's old frame, she had an inkling that Anna's concern with Elsa was not something so simple, but she couldn't be sure, until now.

Anna lowered her gaze, and her mouth returned to behind her knees. Her voice fell into mumbling due to being trapped behind her legs and hospital gown. Gerda spoke up when she couldn't make out what Anna had said.

"Honey, I need you to speak up I can't understand you …" Anna huffed before lifting her chin up from behind her knees.

"I said you're going to be disgusted by me …" Gerda was nearly certain her hypothesis was correct.

"No, I won't. Just tell me what it is, I promise you'll still be my daughter and I'll still love you all the same."

Anna fell silent. She wanted to believe in Gerda, she really did, but years of conditioning taught her that adults rarely ever keep their promises. She instinctively expected the worst outcome. In the back of her mind she knew Gerda had never done anything to betray or hurt her, so she decided to trust Gerda despite everything that told her that adults couldn't be trusted.

"I … I think I like girls …" Gerda had to strain her ears to hear Anna's confession, but when she registered what her adopted daughter said, a ear-to-ear grin appeared on her face. Anna, who had her eyes screwed shut, waiting for the verbal abuse that she instinctively expected to follow. But the beating never came. Anna slowly opened her eyes, to find Gerda, grinning like a fool. Confusion washed over her, she couldn't stop herself from asking why she wasn't mad.

"You … you're not upset? You don't hate me? Or think I'm disgusting?" Anna broken voice was too much for Gerda to bear, she lunged forward to envelope Anna in a hug, but the sudden movement cause the redhead to flinch. Just as Anna was cursing herself for being stupid by asking why she wasn't being beaten, Gerda pulled her into an embrace.

Gerda squeezed Anna tightly, but only enough to show that she was in no danger. Anna's first reaction had been to go limp, a primitive instinct to play dead. But as she began to process Gerda's motive behind the embrace Anna found her own arms snaking around the older woman, before she was returning Gerda's hug. Gerda cleared her throat before speaking to the redhead in her arms.

"I could never hate you … and I don't blame you for not being attract to men … after what you went through at the hands of those monsters, I consider it a miracle that you have the strength to love at all … as for liking _girls_, I suspect its less of _girls_ in general and just _one girl_ … right?" Anna's face flushed red in an instant, her gaze averting from Gerda's. She also moved away from the embrace that had persisted, but Gerda pulled her back in.

"I support you, completely. I think Elsa is a wonderful young woman, and she would be lucky to have you-"

"No she wouldn't …" Anna's abrupt interruption startled Gerda from her train of thought. She was about to launch into her _motherly_ speak about how she would support Anna with her all and help her capture Elsa's heart. But the sound of Anna's self-depricating tone re-emerging stopped Gerda in her tracks. Before she could snap Anna out of this self-depricating spiral, the redhead spoke up.

"I … I can't burden Elsa anymore than I already have. I'm just a broken, tainted, shell of a person. Elsa is the incarnation of a goddess … she's smart, beautiful, super kind, and she has the biggest heart ever … I don't deserve someone so perfect … rather, Elsa deserves someone who is, at least, closer to her level of perfection … not some broken trash who wasn't even wanted by her parents …" Gerda's hands balled into fists, anger and rage surged through her veins, but she kept it in check. The worst thing to do right now would blow up at Anna. So Gerda held her tongue and bided her time.

"… you know, sometimes I wish that the paramedics didn't resuscitate me in that storage closet when I was younger. Sometimes, I wish they would have left me there … to die … at least then I wouldn't be burdening everyone around me with _my_ problems … If I really had died then you wouldn't be forced to pay all these hospital bills because of me … you wouldn't be worrying yourself sick over my every little action … Elsa and her parents wouldn't have had to waste all that money setting up a performance for a third rate composer such as myself … Kristoff and the gang wouldn't have had to watch as their friend bled out in a club … Elsa would have been happy with someone who could truly love her without weighing her down with unneeded burdens." With ever word that fell from Anna's mouth, the scars on her arms and body began to throb painfully.

Anna was initially scared of the pain, she had forgotten what it was like to feel such excruciating pain, but after a few pulses of pain she realized something. She deserved every pang she was feeling. She accepted the pain and the suffering as her atonement for ruining the lives of so many, all for simply existing. Her hands began to twitch, hand felling around for something, anything sharp enough to mark her flesh with. Her hand fell atop the IV running into her arm.

Gerda watched on in stunned horror as Anna ripped the razor sharp needle from her arm, no dought damaging the peripheral vein it had been inserted into. The needle was short and thin. It was too fragile to make incisions, but morbid inspiration burst into Anna's frantic mind.

As the pain grew in intensity, rational thought was overpowered by the voices that screamed for blood. Anna raised her arm, the needle was grasped in her hand and pointed downwards. She released a blood curdling scream, before throwing her arm down onto her leg. The needle easily pierced through her thin gown and into the skin of her thigh. The needle was short and thin, but was easily long enough to nick a vein. Anna raised the needle again, only to swing it down on her leg once more. She repeated the motion over and over again. It wasn't long before her mattress was stained a deep red from the blood that now poured from the innumerable stab wounds on her leg.

Gerda was frozen solid. Fear gripped her heart and paralyzed her from the neck down. She thought they were having a moment. She thought they were making progress. She thought Anna was about to confess her love for Elsa. But the escalation of the events happened too fast. She found herself terrified of this side of Anna. She had never seen such a dark and sinister glint in the redhead's eyes, as when she watched Anna commit to hurting herself again. Those usual bright and glowing teal eyes were lifeless and appeared colorless, not unlike the eyes of a corpse.

Bile rose in Gerda's throat as Anna continued to stab herself over and over again. The thick layer of blood that now coated her leg was starting to stick to her hand, when she raised it the blood would fly across the room. Gerda felt droplets of that blood land on her face. The warm droplet snapped her from her daze.

Gerda stood with such force, the chair tumbled across the floor. The older woman's hand lashed out with such force toward Anna's hand, which clutched the now dull needle, that the needle from ripped from her hand. It landed on the tile flooring with a nearly inaudible metallic clink.

Anna sat motionless for only an instant before she furiously began scratching at her bandaged wrists in a desperate attempt to reopen her old cuts. Gerda was having none of it. She reeled back her arm, before swinging her hand around, striking Anna across the face with enough force to snap her head to the side.

Only then did Anna fall motionless. Gerda was breathing hard by the time she calmed down. The older woman hit the emergency call button on the bed when she realized Anna was still bleeding. The nurses came in just as Gerda fainted into a heap on the floor. She was placed in an empty bed next door and given an IV for fluids.

Anna was restrained, her leg bandaged, and Elsa received a call later that same day about what had transpired. When the blonde arrived at the hospital a few minutes later Gerda was still unconscious and Anna remained completely silent and unresponsive, as if she was awake and unconscious at the same time. The redhead was clearly in shock at what she had done, but with no nurse to elaborate on what happened before they received the emergency call, the only people who knew what happened either refused to utter a single word, or couldn't answer.

* * *

**End of Chapter 12**


	15. Chapter 13

**Pink Mist – Chapter 13**

* * *

Gerda awoke with a start the day following her talk with Anna, which ended with both of them in unresponsive conditions.

She was pleased to find Elsa asleep in the chair that sat between her and Anna's beds. Anna was retrained in her bed, yet was sleeping peacefully. Gerda noticed the dark bags under Elsa's eyes, clearly betraying that Elsa has not gotten much sleep since yesterday.

For a split second Gerda couldn't remember why she had been admitted into the hospital, until the memories of the previous day flooded into her mind. Bile surged up her throat, scorching her esophagus as her body attempted to empty the contents of her stomach. Gerda managed to swallow the acid back down, before taking a shuddering breath.

"_Elsa! Elsa! Wake up!" _Gerda hissed at the younger girl.

Elsa needed to know what happened yesterday. Gerda realized that Elsa is the only person who has been able to help Anna, and as much as it broker her heart to think that she wasn't the one intended to give Anna peace of mind or show her that life is worth living, she decided that so long as Anna _would_ live and so long as she _would_ be happy it didn't matter who saved her.

Elsa stirred after a few more hushed whispers before jolting awake. The newly awake blonde immediately snapped to Anna, only to find she was still asleep. Elsa released a sigh of relief, she hadn't yet prepared herself to see Anna struggle against the restraints that tied her to the bed. Elsa's gaze drifted towards Gerda before a wide grin appeared on the blonde face in response to seeing Gerda sitting up in her bed.

Elsa quietly slid her chair over to the older woman's bed.

"Gerda-" The older woman held up her finger to her lips, signaling Elsa to remain quiet. Elsa started again, this time in a whisper.

"_Gerda … I rushed over as soon as I heard … but … what happened?" _Gerda's heart was tugged on by the look of terror imbedded within those orbs of azure. She took in a shuddering breath before responding in a voice much more hushed than Elsa's.

"_Anna … I … we … we were talking, about y- … about how she was feeling … she was perfectly fine, she was happy … but then she just- … she just-!" _Gerda broke down, Elsa grabbed her hand and squeezed it reassuringly.

"_She just … snapped … She grabbed the needle from her arm and just started stabbing herself in the leg over and over and over and ov-" _Elsa wanted to console Gerda, but she needed to know the whole story. Gerda was holding something back to protect her. She knew it.

"_Gerda … what were you and Anna talking about?" _Gerda knew Elsa was no fool; she could have spotted a lie as obvious as that in an instant.

"_We were talking about you … in a sense. I was interrogating Anna about what she was depressed about_-" Elsa looked at her with confusion, her brow furrowed in worry. "_You saved her, you really did … but she was still hiding her feelings. I've known her for only a little bit longer than you have and I have the experience that comes with old age. I realized she was hiding her depression from everyone. The concert did save her … but I think it was less of the music that saved her and more … you." _Gerda took a deep breath and continued on, she knew if she stopped her it would be a struggle to start again.

"_Anna confessed to me that she likes girls … that she likes _you_ … I was in the middle of telling her how lucky you are to have her-" _Elsa's eyes grew wide, this was starting to sound a lot like what happened between Anna and her Dad. "_When she just snapped … she started rambling about how it would have been better if she had been left to die in that storage closet, and how everyone would be better off if she didn't exist … but the one thing that really set her off was what she said about you … she said you deserved someone to love you, some one who wasn't broken, someone who would never hurt you … she loves you, you know … she really does … but she's … she thinks she is incapable of loving or being loved …" _

The pieces started to fall into place. What Anna said to her father and what she said to Gerda were both essentially the same thing, only this time Anna's self-destructive impulses emerged. It's getting worse. Elsa was planning on confessing to Anna after a bit of set up, after all she wanted everything she did for Anna to be perfect. But if waiting meant the redhead would potentially do more of the things she did yesterday, then Elsa would rather confess now and put an end to Anna's suffering.

Gerda's hushed voice broke Elsa from her thoughts.

"_Elsa, sweety. How … how do you feel about Anna now? I know you loved her before you knew her past, but I fear if your feelings have changed … if you don't-"_

"_I do."_ Gerda's gaze snapped to Elsa's. Her own weathered and aged irises locked with Elsa's azure ones. The blonde's eyes were locked with determination and resolve. Gerda released a breath she didn't realize she was holding.

"_Then take care of her … I'm trusting her to you. I _wish_ I could be the one to save her … but I'm not … you are. So save her, please."_

Elsa looked away from Gerda to Anna. Without looking back, she nodded her head resolutely.

* * *

**End of Chapter 13**


	16. Chapter 14

**Pink Mist – Chapter 14**

* * *

Anna finally woke up from her shocked state by midday the following day. A shooting pain from her leg is what ripped her from the comfort of sleep. The dull throb persisted much like the pain from her scars used to. Anna berated herself for doing _it_ again. She had promised Gerda she would stop; yet she did _it_ right in front of her. She wanted to break down and cry, but someone clearing their throat interrupted her. As her gaze rose to look at the other person in the room, her eyes fell upon an angry looking Elsa. Before she could even speak, the blonde broke the silence.

"You don't know what you're doing to me. Explain, now."

Elsa's voice was the perfect example of tranquil fury. She spoke with a smooth voice devoid of emotion, yet the cool tones betrayed the rage that boiled just below the melodic sound. Anna flinched in pain when the sound of an angry Elsa sparked a burning sensation to erupt in her arms. Her scars began to throb in the same searing pain they always had before the concert. When the redhead's gaze fell to her arms, which were now locked, in agonizing grasps, the blonde reined in her anger. She was planning on scolding Anna for hurting herself again, but that plan blew up in her face. Tears dangled precariously from the lashes of the redhead's eyes, but before they could drop, Elsa spoke.

"Wait! No, I didn't mean it like that … It's just … Every time I hear about you hurting yourself … I remember the club … I remember _that_ night, on the dance floor of that club where you were laid out … you were so still, you looked like you were sleeping, but there was so much blood … and it pooled around you … I feel- … queasy … whenever I think about what it felt like to wade through all that blood … it was thick, it felt like I was walking in syrup … only it wasn't syrup … it was blood … _your_ _blood_ … I remember feeling so scared and … and helpless … I couldn't do anything to help you, to save you … I could only watch as you were slowly dying right in front of me …" Elsa's voice gave out on her when the last of her breath was expelled in her long winded rant. She took a deep breath, not only to keep going but also to steady her nerves.

"I … at the hospital after the club, when the doctors said you would live … I was _so happy_ that you would be okay … but … when I receive a call that you assaulted yourself with your own IV line … I was back in that club, watching you die. I … I can't keep doing this, Anna. I can't bear to be given such a miracle … such a blessing … only to have it nearly ripped from my grasp shortly after … I just … can't …"

Anna's face fell into her hands. She knew what Elsa was saying. It would appear Adgar had relayed everything she told him to his daughter, and now Elsa was having second thoughts about devoting so much time to trying to fix something so broken as her. She knew this was for the best. If Elsa put distance between them, then Anna could no longer hurt the blonde when she hurt herself. She _knew_ it was for the best … yet why did it hurt so much?

Why did it feel like a hole had been ripped open in her chest? Why did this new pain in her heart overpower everything she has ever felt up until now? Why was her body now shaking because of the excruciating, stabbing pain shooting through her chest, and not from the dull throbbing of her arms? Why didn't she feel the overwhelming drive to cut? Why couldn't she pull the needle from her arm and repeat what she did the day before? Why … why did _this_ hurt so much _more_ than her scars?

Anna slowly opened her eyes she had screwed closed to shut out the pain in her chest. Without lifting her head, she peered through her bangs at Elsa. The blonde was leaning back in her chair, one arm draped over her eyes and the other was clutching at her chest. A glimmer of light refracted off of a lone tear that slid down the blonde's porcelain face. Something within Anna's heart stirred, despite the pain. But when the blonde sitting across from her released a poorly concealed sob, Anna was plunged back into the consuming abyss of pain.

This time, the pain dimmed the fringes of her vision. The only thing that registered in her field of view was a silently sobbing Elsa. Her ears began to ring, blocking out the steady increase of the beeping heart monitor. Her mouth became parched in an instant, it felt as if she had wandered the desert for weeks on end without a single drop of water to drink. A mantra played in her head on repeat.

_Please stop crying! Please stop crying! Please don't cry! Please don't cry!_

As the pain in her chest grew and her worst fears became reality as Elsa began to break down, Anna realized her arms no longer hurt. She couldn't feel the numb throb from beneath her fingernails that plagued her whenever she thought about all those hours spent scratching at _that _door. She couldn't feel the whip of fire lacing up her arm and across her back. She couldn't feel the delayed sensation of her skin being flayed from her back and shoulders.

It all stopped.

Every single bad memory from _that_ room fizzled into nothingness when faced with a sobbing Elsa. For the briefest of instances Anna wondered why, until everything clicked into place. It finally made sense why Elsa became her number one priority, why she cared more about Elsa's well being than her own. It made sense why she was willing to condemn herself to the same demons of corruption and death when it meant Elsa would be sparred from the pain.

She loves Elsa. She is _in_ love with Elsa.

With this new revelation in mind, Anna let go of all the pent up frustration and confusion that had been plaguing her since the concert. Now, everything was as it should be. Elsa had given up on her, and she would be moving on to a better and brighter future … without Anna.

It hurt to admit it, but when Anna finally accepted that this was for the best, she felt her mind clear for the first time in years. This was for the best, so long as Elsa would live a happy and peaceful life, Anna would confront her inner demons, even if she were doomed to fail.

Anna was lost in her moment of emotional clarity. She didn't realize Elsa had wiped away her tears and was now staring at Anna with such fierce intensity, had Anna been aware of the blonde's gaze she would be rooted to her spot in fear. Only when Elsa spoke, did Anna finally wake from her thoughts.

"-ospital, the doctors told me to try and get you to realize that there is a reason to live. They told me to give you a reason to live. I had originally thought that if you had your music, if you realized that you are a genuinely talented, you would have more than enough of a reason to want to live … but I was wrong. I realize now that music was never your way of life it was simply a way of express what you were feeling." Elsa stood from her chair, walked over to the bed and kneeled on the ground next to Anna. This new position placed the edge of the bed above her navel, allowing her to lean forward and grasp onto Anna's hands with her own. Elsa pried the scarred appendages away from her body and held them in her own between them.

"I wanted to wait … to plan out this whole thing … I wanted it to be perfect … I wanted it to reflect everything I feel … I wanted it to capture the extend of all of my feelings … I wanted it to be perfect for you … but if by waiting I am only jeopardizing everything, then I will happily spill my heart to you here and now." Elsa squeezed Anna's hands tightly, desperate to squeeze out even a tiny bit of the redhead's immense courage for herself, for this moment. The blonde took a deep breath before opening her eyes to meet Anna's confused teal irises as she began talking once more.

"I once had someone that I truly loved-" Anna instantly began to retreat, but Elsa held firm on her hands, holding her in place. "_He_-" Anna began pulling her hands away harder, Elsa struggled against her pull, but was determined to get through everything without ever breaking contact with the redhead. "-was someone who I once imagined getting married to-" Anna pulled harder. "But I was wrong!" Anna's struggle stopped. "He was just using me for my parent's status in society, he cheated on me then proceeded to blame everything on me. He accused me of being _too clingy_-" Anna's grip clamped down on her hands, her teal eyes were alight with fury. Elsa released an airy chuckle at Anna getting angry on her behalf.

"He used me and tossed me aside like I was nothing. It was after this that I started closing myself off from others. I rarely talked with anyone I didn't know. As you can imagine, that turns into a bit of a cycle. If I don't talk to people I don't know, how could I ever get to know them enough to start talking to them? Well … I didn't. I never made new friends or relationships. I only maintained those connections I already had, like Kristoff, Olaf, Rapunzel and the gang, but I never reached out to make new connections with people … until I met you."

"You were the cutest, shyest, most sincere person I have ever met. From day one, you claimed a spot in my heart. From the very beginning I was never the _Ice Queen_ to you, I was Elsa, just Elsa. Despite your own suffering and keeping your own secrets, you still fought to spend time with me. I didn't realize at the time what you were going through, but looking back I realize that you chose to spend time with me, rather than cutting your pain away. Correct me if I'm wrong, but you don't feel like cutting when you're around me, do you?" A curt shake of a head of red hair was all she got in response.

"Well, when I'm together with you, I forget all about my loneliness. My world of icy solitude melts away from the warmth you breath into me every day. You are the sun that melts away the walls of ice I built around myself. You are the air that has resuscitated this cold husk of a human body. Without you I feel lost and alone. I feel the icy persona I created to protect my true self, slowly consuming me. I fear if you were to ever leave me, I truly would become the _Ice Queen_ everyone sees me as. I don't want to become cold and unloving. I want to live my life with the ones I love, with my true love … Anna, I love you, and I don't want to be separated from you ever again. I love you too much. So please, please stop hurting yourself. If not for you than for me, if you ever succeeded I don't think I would have the strength to continue on without you. So, please … please stop."

* * *

**End of Chapter 14**


	17. Chapter 15

**Pink Mist – Chapter 15**

* * *

The silence was deafening. Only by the rhythmic beeping of the heart monitor, did the silence not drive the two women mad. One was holding their breath in anticipation, and the other experienced the wind being knocked from their lungs at the other's confession.

Anna, who had only just come to the realization that she was in love with Elsa, had difficulty believing what was happening as reality. She instantly assumed the worst, her injuries from yesterday had proven fatal and she was now either dead or dying. Any moment she would either wake up in a bloody mess in the ER, or her consciousness would fade as the last of her life left her body. In a fit of desperation, she pulled on Elsa's hands, bringing the blonde's body to hers, before enveloping the older girl in a life-assuring hug.

Elsa was confused by this gesture. It could either be a friendly hug of gentle rejection while simultaneously reassuring her that she wasn't going anywhere despite her one-sided confession. Or it could be a form of acceptation and reciprocation. Elsa was too scared to assume one way or the other, so she patiently waited until Anna gave her a more concrete answer.

After pinching herself several times behind Elsa's back, and squeezing the blonde tightly to ensure she was really here, Anna finally released her. Anna leaned back so she could stare into those eyes of the purest blue as she gave her answer.

"Oh Elsa, you don't know how true your words are when you say I don't feel the urge to cut when I'm next to you. All my life … all my miserable, terrible, messed up life … I think I've been waiting. I've been waiting for someone who could help me forget about my past, someone who could help me move on, someone who I could love and be loved by, despite my scars and history. I think I've been waiting for a savior. I've been waiting for someone who could save me from danger, from harm, from … me. I think- … no, I know that someone is you." A lone tear fell from Elsa's now fluttering eyes, Anna reached up with a terribly scarred hand and brushed it off with the pad of her thumb.

"You do so much more than keep the urge to cut at bay. When I'm with you, as I am now, I can't even feel the scars on my arms. I can't remember the smell of my own blood, nor the taste. I no longer feel the pangs of hunger assault my stomach from when they starved me. I can't even picture that room, or the door, when I'm next to you. You save me each and every time you look at me, every time you say my name, every time you hold my hand."

Anna, didn't even feel the tears falling from her face until the blonde wiped them away much like she did for her moments ago.

"I realize now that my life is no longer my own, that my pain is no longer my own. While pain is something I have long since grown accustomed to, now that I know that every cut I inflict on myself will cut a million times deeper into your heart and inflict upon you unimaginable pain. Knowing this, the idea alone that I would be causing you pain, makes my heart ache with such ferocity that it eclipses everything else. So, I don't think you will have to worry about me cutting or stabbing myself anymore, because I love you and I could never bring myself to hurt you, in any way, shape, or form." Elsa's eye widened at Anna's confession, a look of pleading passed through her azure eyes. One that Anna understood.

"I love you, Elsa and I could never leave you. I love you too much." Elsa released a bark of relieved laughter. She struggled to hold back more tears, but when Anna moved to cup her cheek the dam burst and the tears flowed once more.

Desperate to feel Anna's warmth and to ensure that this was really happening, the blonde crawled up onto the hospital bed. She grasped at Anna's form, squeezing out any space between their bodies. The blonde rested her head above Anna's heart as her arms snaked around and beneath the redhead's body. All the while Anna stroked her hair, running fingers through immaculate, pale gold locks. Soon enough the emotional toll on both women proved too much to bear and they fell asleep in each other's arms. Elsa was lulled to sleep by the rhythmic thumping of Anna's heartbeat, and Anna followed behind her as the warmth from the blonde enveloped her.

* * *

The noise of a camera shutter broke Anna from her blissful sleep. She struggled to grasp what was going on, she could hear muffled voices all around her but couldn't identify who or what they were saying. When she tried to sit up, she felt a weight pushing her down onto the bed. Instinct kicked in, and she jolted awake. The sleep cleared from her senses in an instant. Her vision was filled with impossibly pale blonde hair. She could feel the weight on top of her breathing slow and steadily. It took her a few seconds to remember what happened the earlier, but when she did she couldn't hold back the grin that bloomed across her face.

As she sat up, propping her back against the elevated end of the hospital bed, she maneuvered carefully to ensure she didn't wake Elsa. She finally reached a sitting position with the blonde's head and upper body cradled in her lap, with her arms still wrapped around her waist. A small puddle of drool began to pool on her leg, but the adorable sight of Elsa drooling in her sleep made her forget about the viscous liquid that was now soaking through her gown.

With their mutual confession from earlier in the day, Anna felt a pang of affectionate desire surge through her, this time she knew she wouldn't have to bury it deep within her. She knew Elsa loved her, and with that realization the redhead felt her confidence soar. So she reached down and began running her fingers through Elsa's hair, much like she did earlier. She was careful to not disturb the blonde's sleep, what with all the commotion and grief she had been causing her, she wanted to let her sleep just a little bit longer.

Elsa mumbled something in her sleep before snuggling up closer to Anna. The redhead cooed at the adorable antics of her new sleeping girlfriend. A voice from the other side of the room released an "aw."

Anna's head snapped towards the sound. She didn't realize there was someone else in the room. When she saw Elsa's parents standing by the door, she felt all of the muscles in her body tense. She briefly contemplated waking Elsa up, placing her hands on her shoulders preparing to gentle shake her awake. But when Idun saw she quickly tiptoed into the room, close enough where she could whisper and assure the redhead.

"Let her sleep just a little longer sweetie. Heavens know what she has been through these past few days." Before Anna could even begin rocking the blonde awake, she released her slender shoulders. Her hands went back to stroking Elsa's hair, almost by instinct, in the mean time Idun spoke in hushed tones so to not wake up her daughter.

"We rushed over here as soon as work would allow us to. Elsa managed to get an excused absence from an exam today so she could come see you. Though after that performance the other day, I don't think anyone on campus will have anything to say against giving you and Elsa a bit of leeway for certain things." Anna's eyes grew a little bit wide at that info. Elsa had always held her studies and academic performance as her top priority, but to hear that she was willing to skip an exam just to come see her made the redhead fall for Elsa just a little bit more. Her smile grew a little wider, and she leaned down to place a small peck on the top of Elsa's head. The blonde hummed in content at the gesture, before snuggling even closer to Anna.

Idun couldn't help but coo at the couple, as the sound of a camera shutter sounded again. Anna's gaze snapped over to Adgar, only to see him stuffing something back into his pocket as he averted his gaze to the oak wood door next to him. Idun struggled to hold back her laughter as she addressed her husband.

"Honey, you better send those to me. I'll need to include them in their scrap book for the future." Anna's brow furrowed in confusion before she broker her silence.

"What scarp book?"

"Oh, its just a tradition in the Winter family. Usually the mother, that me, is in charge of making a scarp book of all the momentous occasions in the children's lives. But what really separates this one from the one I currently have for Elsa, is that is will be a scrapbook of Elsa and you, as a couple … you are a couple, right?" A blush bloomed across Anna's face, before she swallowed and nodded her head vehemently. Idun squealed in delight and Anna could see Adgar fist pump off to the side. Idun, could hardly contain her glee, and glomped onto Anna and her sleeping daughter, wrapping both into a spine snapping hug.

"Oh! I'm so happy for you, for both of you!" Idun noticed that Elsa was gripping Anna rather tightly. She made a mental note, before pulling back.

"Oops, nearly forgot that Elsa is _sleeping_." Anna tilted her head in confusion at Idun's odd emphasis, but brushed it off as nothing. In the mean time Idun began ranting a mile a minute.

"You two really do deserve each other. Elsa's always had trouble reaching out to others, she's not very good at expressing herself, and she worries herself sick over everything little thing. You should have seen her driving herself into the ground trying to make that concert perfect. She worked her butt off making sure it was everything she imagined it would be, for you. Oh! And you, Anna, you've seen things no girl your age should ever have to see and yet you managed to stay strong for so long. You are an inspiration to us all. In fact, my husband and I will be opening a charity to help protect children from abusive parents. We're going to put all the money we receive from donations into building homes for abused children to live, and where they can receive the proper medical and psychological care necessary to rehabilitate them. Elsa has been talking to the administrative board of Arendelle University about opening a scholarship in your name to help people like you by paying fees and expenses. Oh! and-" Adgar cut into Idun's rant by looping his arm around his gushing wife and steering her towards the door. Before Idun could continue speaking, Adgar lead her through the door and closed it behind him. But before the door latch clicked into place, he opened it enough to poke his head back into the room to speak.

"Oh, and Elsa? You can stop pretending to be asleep now!" Adgar grinned from ear to ear, before closing the door firmly. The noise of the door rattling in its frame caused Elsa's body the flinch.

Anna peered down at the blonde in her lap. A blush crept up her face at the realization that Elsa has been awake this whole time and that she heard or saw everything she said and did.

Without warning, Elsa's hand shot out and grabbed the bed controls. She found the recline button and hit it until the hospital bed fell back into the horizontal, flat position. Anna, who was stunned by both Elsa's sudden movement and the new position, could do little to react when Elsa pulled herself up until she was lying right next to her. The blonde placed her head on Anna's chest with her head just beneath the redhead's chin. One of Elsa's hands snaked around Anna's arm before lacing their fingers together, their clasped hands rested on the bed between their bodies. Elsa's other arm was draped across Anna's stomach.

Elsa released a content sigh as she settled into her new position. Just as the blonde became still once more, Elsa lifted her head up and planted a kiss on Anna's cheek, before nuzzling her head back beneath Anna's chin.

Anna, not wanting to be outdone, placed another kiss to the top of Elsa's head in response. When the blonde felt the soft lips of her girlfriend land on the crown of her head, she tilted her face up to peer at Anna. A mock pout graced the blonde's features, eliciting a huff of laughter from the redhead. The redhead rolled her eyes, before lowering her lips once more to place a peck onto the blonde's pouty lips.

Both girls froze at the contact. Their eyes dilated in tandem, and both held their breath. Anna, not sure if she crossed the line, retreated first. Until, Elsa's free hand came up to cup Anna's cheek and to guide the redhead's lips back down to her own. Their first kiss was a small peck that neither of them were prepared for, but their second was everything the first lacked.

When their lips met, stars exploded behind both sets of closed eyelids. Jolts of electricity ran up and down their spines, tickling their nerves and sending tingling waves throughout their bodies. As the sensation rebounded and it traveled up the spine, their backs arched in response. With every gasp from Anna, due to either the need to breath or in response to the new and amazing sensations that coursed through her body, Elsa could feel her desires build.

She rolled her body over, swinging her leg around until she was straddling Anna. The redhead, completely immersed in the new and exciting sensation of making out with her new girlfriend, was hardly aware of Elsa's new position until she felt the blonde bring her scarred hands up rest on her hips. Not knowing what she was supposed to do, Anna tried dragging Elsa's pelvis against her own from her new grip. The motion earned her a throaty moan from Elsa and sparked a fire in her lower abdomen.

The air between them was getting heavy. Elsa knew they shouldn't be doing this in a hospital and that any moment her parents could walk back in here, but at the moment the only thing that mattered to her was her flushed and flustered girlfriend below her. Anna could no longer think straight, her body was on fire and her senses were hypersensitive to everything going on with the body above her.

Without warning Anna felt a pang of loneliness and felt real fear grip her heart. She desperately pushed Elsa far enough away so their eyes could meet. The look of pure desire that rested within half-lidded glacial blue eyes sent shivers of excitement through Anna's body. Anna would give anything to be able to stare into those eyes for the rest of her days, but the fear that was gripping her heart began to squeeze tighter.

The blonde noticed the fearful look in her beloved's eyes, and worry instantly replaced her lust. Elsa silently berated herself for not restraining herself. While she didn't have any experience going all the way, she was ashamed to admit that she had acquired some experience making out with _him_. But _his_ pace was always too much for Elsa back then, yet here she was pushing that same pacing onto Anna, who had no experience in love whatsoever.

The sudden shift in mood extinguished the fires in both women's cores, and replaced the heated atmosphere with a much softer and much more intimate air. Elsa leaned down and placed a chaste kiss onto Anna's lips before moving to her ear to whisper.

"I love you." Anna shuddered at the sincerity in Elsa's voice. She wrapped her arms around Elsa's neck to keep her from retreating too far away, before lifting her head to place an equally chaste kiss on the blonde's lips. As her head fell back onto the mattress below her, her teal eyes locked with Elsa's blue ones. With a look void of any doubt or hesitation, she responded.

"I love you too, Elsa."

* * *

**End of Chapter 15**


	18. Chapter 16

**Alright, well ... this is the end. There is a bit of a time skip, but nevertheless I feel that this ending is satisfactory. I hope you all enjoyed this work, and I'll see you again when I finish writing one of my other works. **

**Until next time, enjoy.**

* * *

**Pink Mist - Chapter 16**

* * *

"Are you ready to go yet?" The melodic voice flittered through the house. Its owner was pacing back and forth in the kitchen downstairs. It was nearing time to leave for the performance and as the conductor she couldn't be late. When she received no response from upstairs she huffed in mild annoyance. The woman strode over to the kitchen island to check the content of the bag that rested on it. She had already checked the bag five times in the last few minutes, but she just wanted to make sure she already had everything she needed for tonight.

Within the bag rested the sheet music for tonight's performance as well as two conductor's batons. The first was thicker and made of wood; it would produce a nice, audible sound when snapped. The second was lighter and made of plastic; its designed to be tucked away in the inside coat pocket, ready to be pulled out when it is needed. The woman reached further into the bag to the hidden pocket sewed into the bottom. She didn't dare open it, she simply pressed against the pouch and against the small box within to reassure herself that _it_ was truly in there.

The blonde woman double-checked, then triple checked to make sure she had all of the pages of sheet music before zipping up the bag and slinging the strap over her shoulder. When she glanced at the clock it read 5:45 PM. The show wasn't until 7:00, but she really needed to be there early to make sure everything was prepared for tonight. She called out to the other woman upstairs, but received no response. Worry began to creep into her heart, but she shook off the tiresome feeling.

She made her way to the stairs that were located near the front door before ascending them. On the walls that she passed, numerous photos showed two women together, happy and smiling. Two photos hung side by side both depicting the women's separate graduation days. Another depicted the blonde woman down on one knee before the other, a house key resting in her hands. The house in the background was the very same house that the two women now called home.

As the blonde reached the door to the bedroom that resided on the top floor, she pushed it open gently. On the bed sat her beloved, who was staring down at something that rested in her palm. The blonde took only a single glance to realize that it was an old, rusty box cutter that rested in her hand. A pang of worry shot through her, until her eyes flittered back up to meet her beloved's.

"Elsa, I was looking through some of my old stuff for some jewelry to wear. I found this." The redhead held the box cutter out to the blonde. Elsa gently pulled it from her hand, taking extra care to not let the rusty blade come in contact wither her girlfriend's flesh. Without even looking at the object, the blonde placed it on the furthest bedside table from her girlfriend and sat down on the bed beside her. The blonde took her girlfriend's hands, turning them upwards to run her fingers over the horizontal scars that littered her wrists. Never once did glacial blue eyes break away from the redhead's teal ones.

Elsa released a light sigh of relief when her hands scoured the smooth expanse of skin that was covered in scars and failed to find any new ones. She took a deep breath to speak, but was interrupted when the other spoke.

"Elsa, you know I haven't cut in years …"

"I know Anna, its just … I just feel the need to check … you know just in case … I know by doing this it feels like I don't trust you, but … if I don't check I feel like I'll wake up and you'll be gone, as if this whole thing has just been one blissful dream and in reality you d-died that night in the club. You'd think that over the past four years I would have gotten over this stupid fear-"

"Its not stupid. If my fear of dark enclosed spaces is not considered irrational, then neither is your fear of me cutting. I know you mean well … I know when I got mad at you the other day I had forgotten that you check my scars every day to make sure that I'm really here, not because you don't trust me to not cut." A blush crept up on Anna's face as she continued. "Plus I think I'm starting to like the way it feels when you run your fingers over my scars, normally any sensation I get from them is dull or muted, but when you do _this_-" Anna nodded to Elsa's hands that were ghosting over her wrists. "I feel it all, and as much as it is a reassurance for you that I'm still here, it tells me that _you're_ still here, with me."

Elsa smiled affectionately at Anna before leaning in to kiss her. Anna returned the kiss with earnest. Elsa broke away when she glanced down at her watch, it was 6:15, it would take them nearly 30 minutes to make the drive. She immediately yanked Anna onto her feet before dragging her down the stairs and out the front door, the redhead managed to snatch her gloves she used to voer up her scars when in public. Elsa noticed Anna donning the silky fabric form the corner of her eye and frowned. She wanted to tell Anna that she didn't need to hide herself from others, but at the moment more pressing things weighed on her mind. She _needed _to get to the theater to go over everything, after all tonight was their anniversary and she wanted it to be perfect.

* * *

When they arrived at the theater it was already filled with people. Gerda and Kai were waiting for them outside. They exchanged pleasantries before all heading inside together. Gerda was in good health, much to the relief of Anna. After she and Elsa moved in together the redhead was worried about leaving the older woman alone in that big house. Elsa even offered her a room in the massive Winter household, but the elderly woman politely refused the offer. It was later discovered that Gerda and Kai, from the Nursing Department at the hospital Anna stayed at, were seeing each other. Kai moved into the Baker estate shortly after Anna moved out.

Gerda and Kai were suspiciously quiet but held perpetual grins, even in the face of Anna asking what they were so happy about. The redhead wanted to find out what they were hiding, but they too disappeared into the crowd after ignoring her inquiries.

Somewhere between the sidewalk outside and the entry wall of the theater Elsa disappeared. Anna was left to wonder what her blonde girlfriend had planned as she wandered through the thongs of people that came to see the performance of her finished masterpiece. Many of them expressed their excitement about the show to her as she passed them, each time responding with the same humble response, "I hope my music does not betray your expectations." This new, humble Anna is a far cry from the self-deprecating, self-doubting Anna that existed four years ago. Even to this day, Elsa insists that no one can match her girlfriend's musical talent, but Anna simply accepts Elsa's praise as favoritism.

The show was due to start in fifteen minutes and Anna began making her way to the theater to claim her seat. She was stopped about halfway when she ran into Adgar and Idun. She greeted them both with warm hugs before addressing the married couple.

"Elsa didn't tell me you were coming. She said you both were tied up at work and wouldn't be able to fly the 17 hours from out of the country to make it?" Adgar released a bark of laughter just before Idun answered.

"As if we would miss this! This kind of thing only happens once in the life of parents to a single child. We wouldn't miss it for the world!" Anna tilted her head in confusion before responding.

"What are you talking about? What only happens once? A concert? This isn't our last performance … right?" The genuine confusion on Anna's face drained the color from both Idun and Adgar's faces. Idun began wringing her hands as she responded.

"You mean you don't- … Elsa didn't …" Idun glanced at her husband in a desperate call to be saved. The large man stepped forward, looping his arm around the waist of his wife before speaking up.

"Oh! Would you look at the time! The shows about to start! Well, Anna, see you inside!" the large man matched off toward the theater with his wife in tow, as he made a brisk and somewhat rushed beeline for the double doors.

Anna was left confused and alone in the now empty entryway. A lone usher approached her to guide her to her seat. She followed in contemplative silence, and didn't even notice that he was leading her to the seat that she did not request. She wanted to sit right in the middle of the room so she could hear every note with perfect acoustics, but the seat she was directed to was the one in the very front row. She was within arms reach of the stage, she could practically spell the wood polish on the instruments from behind the red curtain.

The moment Anna sat down at her seat, with almost too perfect of timing, the lights in the expansive hall dimmed in tandem with the lights on the stage. A spot light burst to life, illuminating a microphone on the far edge of the stage. Behind it stood Gerda. Anna was instantly reminded of the introduction her adoptive guardian gave at the performance four years ago. In her nostalgia, Anna nearly missed Gerda addressing the audience.

"I would like to welcome each and every one of you here tonight … but there are nearly three thousand of you and I fear there wouldn't be any time left over for the music!" The audience gave a cheerful laugh at Gerda's joke, a grin danced across Anna's face as well.

"Some of you look familiar … and by that I mean I can hardly see at all with that blasted spot light shining in my eyes!" Another warm laugh rippled through the crowd.

"All jokes aside, I saw many of the same faces I remember from the audience that came here exactly four years ago. Four years ago we all bore witness to the performance of a yet unfinished piece. And after _four long years_ that piece has finally been finished. Now for those of you who do not know, the composer of both this piece and the piece from four years ago is an alumna from our own Arendelle University. She graduated last year, but decided to stick around while writing music for artists from around the world. Some of my students here tonight will recognize the name of the composer, as she is my pride and joy. Not a day goes by where I don't mention her and her near infinite talent! Everybody please give her a warm round of applause as she joins me on stage, Anna Baker!"

Anna gawked at the older woman on stage who was holding out a hand as she pointed to Anna. The rest of the audience erupted into deafening applause. One particular cluster of people from close by were whooping, hollering, and cheering several times louder than those around them. A bashful flush coated the redhead's cheeks as she slowly approached the stairs on the far end of the stage. Gerda met her at the steps and helped her up onto the stage, before guiding her to a chair that managed to appear out of thin air next to the microphone.

The older woman motioned for Anna to sit, while she returned to the mike. Gerda said a few more things before ending her introductory speech and walking off the stage. Anna tried to call out to the older woman to ask what she was supposed to do, but she was already gone. The redhead quickly realized that she was the only one on the stage and that the entirety of the audience was watching her every move.

Her heart began tripping over itself and her face flushed bright red. Anna barely heard some of the audience members coo at her embarrassment over the pounding of her heart in her ears. Just when the redhead thought her heart would burst from anticipation, the sound of heels clicking on the wooden stage cut through the silence. They started from the far side of the stage and moved across the stage. The owner of the shoes was walking towards the center of the stage from behind the curtain.

Just as the owner of the surprisingly loud shoes reached the center of the stage the curtains jerked and parted at the center. The orchestra was revealed from behind the curtains, all ready and prepared to play. Elsa was standing just in front of the podium, wearing her stunningly sharp and form-fitting tuxedo.

She turned to the audience to give the customary pre-performance bow; she bent at the waist and gave a small bow. She then turned towards Anna and bowed again, this time much lower, Anna didn't know how to respond or act so she settled for blushing like mad. Elsa held the bow a second longer than seemed necessary, before snapping back upwards. The regal looking blonde turned towards the orchestra, bringing her hands up into position as she stepped onto the podium. Just before raising her arms to commence the performance, the blonde glanced over at her girlfriend to give her a wink, before bringing her arms up and down again. The music poured forth from the orchestra.

* * *

This time around, compared to the performance four years ago, some things were different. After the first movement, Elsa wasn't silently sobbing this time. Much of the audience was, but Elsa was just staring at Anna with a saddened look. The lead French horn player balling her eyes out just like she did four years ago. Elsa had to give the musician an extra few seconds to get it together before they continued to piece.

* * *

No long forgotten faces from her past came to visit her this time around, though she did notice a familiar greying head of red hair in the crowd, but she was too far away to say if it was the nurse who took care of her when she was young. Without the distractions she was able to listen to the music in earnest. Before long her eyes fell closed, her hand rested on her chest as she felt the music reverberate within her. Her foot began tapping along with the music in perfect time along with many of the musicians. Had her eyes been open she would have seen Elsa's warm smile being direct to her.

The blonde conductor continued to direct the orchestra with her right hand as the other signaled to someone just off stage. A boy dressed in all black darted from the shadows just off stage-left and handed a black clothe bag to one of the members of the brass who were resting. The then passed the cloth bag through the orchestra until it reached Elsa. The blonde received the bag with one hand, opened it and took out the small black box, all the while continuing to conduct with her other hand. She placed the small box on her stand, off to one side so it wasn't in the way of the sheet music, and returned to her usual posture of conducting with both arms.

Anna was too lost in the music to notice what just transpired, and thus was completely unaware of what Elsa was planning.

* * *

When the third movement started, Anna felt some lingering shame come over her. She regrets letting her pain and frustration drive her to suicide. In retrospect she realizes what should would have done to Elsa had she succeeded, the blonde would have been devastated. Just the thought of what she almost did to her girlfriend was enough to send of pulse of emotion through her. Tears gathered in her eyes, and a sickening sensation lodged in both her stomach and chest. The redhead swallowed hard before trying to hold in her tears, she didn't want to ruin her make up so early on in the performance.

Elsa noticed how her girlfriend was feeling, and motioned to one of the flute players. They nodded in understanding before standing from her seat, placing her instrument on the seat behind her, and moving to take Elsa's position. The regal conductor swiftly made her way over to her girlfriend, who was on the verge of tears.

Before the redhead could even ask the blonde was doing right in the middle of the show, she swooped down and enveloped her in a firm embrace. The hug helped Anna calm down in an instant. All the while Elsa was whispering sweet nothings into her ear, Anna completely forgot they were on stage in front of thousands of people. When the music began to intensify Elsa detached herself from Anna. Giving the redhead's gloved hands one last squeeze, Elsa moved back to the platform to take the reins of the orchestra once more.

* * *

When it came time for Elsa to snap her baton, she made sure to turn to the audience when she did it. The wooden baton gave a magnificent sound when she bent it at the center. The audience erupted in applause, though many of the returning audience wondered how this piece was different from the one four years ago.

The audience continued to clap, waiting for Elsa and the orchestra to bow for the end of their performance. Until Elsa reached into her coat, pulling out a second baton, much like a knight unsheathes a sword, and raised her arms as the orchestra continued to play. The audience fumbled over their premature clapping and awkwardly returned to the seated position.

* * *

The final movement that Anna added to the piece did a perfect job of capturing just how happy she had become. The music was never dark or heavy, always maintaining its light and airy feel. The tones were energetic and happy, and the chords were bright. At the center of the music was the lead flute and lead violin engaged in an elaborate dance as the rest of the orchestra followed along in their musical games. Anna tried to pour her all into the flute and violin duet, she wanted Elsa to know just how happy she made her. She wanted the blonde to know how different she has changed her dark and depressing life.

The small glances Elsa was giving Anna told her she understood perfectly. Anna's eyes, which were locked on her blonde girlfriend, fell to the music stand just in front of her. A small black box caught her attention, the exterior looked smooth and velvety. A small seam ran around the middle, as if the box was designed to part in the middle and open up. Anna would have contemplated what the box was for more, had the music not changed.

The violin fell silent, leaving only the flute to play by its self. The flute player burst to life as they stood up from their seated position, playing incredibly complex and graceful passages from memory. Anna cocked her head to the side in confusion, she didn't write that. She didn't include a flute solo in her piece, nor did she instruct the violin to stop playing. Whatever was going on, the orchestra was deviating from the intended music.

Elsa let her arms fall to her sides. The first chair flute took over perfectly, and did not fail to deliver when she asked them to write a solo for themselves that was the epitome of grace and complexity. The flute player was furiously fingering their way through the solo, directing it all towards the silent violin player.

Elsa, with trembling fingers placed her baton onto the music stand before her, before picking up the black box as delicately as if it was made of glass. The blonde began making her way over to Anna. From behind the seated redhead, Gerda emerged from the shadows. The older woman gripped the back of the chair, instructing Anna to stand, and taking the chair away with her.

Anna stood awkwardly, neither knowing what was going on nor what she should be doing. Elsa slowly approached her, her heels clicking loudly on the stage below her. Anna realized that every momentous occasion in her life has revolved around the sound of someone walking. She used to fear the sound of her parents ascending the steps to her room to beat her. She used to fear the sound of her kidnappers heavy steps just before he would torture her. But now, those same clicking heals belonged to the girl she loved, the girl she couldn't live without.

She was startled from her thoughts when she realized that Elsa wasn't standing in front of her anymore. Briefly looking around, Anna felt her breath hitch and her eyes water upon discovering Elsa _kneeling_ before her. In the blonde's outstretched hands rested the black velvet box from earlier. Anna noticed Elsa's hands were shaking, just before the blonde spoke.

"Anna, I changed your music. I hope you can forgive me." Anna released a breathy chuckle that threatened to release the dam on her tears, before nodding shyly. "I … four years ago I conducted this very same orchestra through this very same piece in an attempt to show you that life was worth living. But I failed you-" Anna opened her mouth to speak, but Elsa lifted her hand to stop her. "Over the past four years since then, I have been blessed with the privilege to live with you and bear witness to the will of the strongest woman I have ever met. You are an inspiration to us all. You, who have suffered _so much_, somehow found the will to live for _so long_. If we were to separate today, I would consider myself lucky to have even a fraction of your strength … but I would be truly blessed and eternally grateful if you would allow me remain by your side from now until the end of my days, and if you would allow me to become your strength and if you would become mine." Tears were silently running down Anna's face, her hands were clapped over her mouth, trying to remain quiet. Elsa's eyes locked onto her girlfriend's gloved hands for a few seconds before moving.

Elsa separated her hands, reaching forward with an empty hand, while setting the box down on the floor before reaching back up to Anna. The blonde pried her girlfriend's arms from her face and began removing the gloves that covered them. Anna moved to stop Elsa, but the look of compassion and determination in the blonde's eyes made the redhead stop short and allow her girlfriend to undress her arms. When the gloves were fully removed them flew to the side as Elsa tossed them off the stage.

Elsa picked the black box up once more, presenting it to Anna and cleared her throat before speaking once more.

"Anna, I love you more than anything I have ever loved in my life. Everyday I have spent with you has been a blessing and I would be honored if you would be my wife and let me spend everyday of my life with you." Elsa opened the box before peaking one final time. "Anna Baker … will you marry me?"

Resting within the black box was a diamond ring. The metal in the band gave off a subtle blue glow, which when passing through the crystal clear diamond made the entire ring appear to made of blue-ish ice.

Anna struggled to find her voice and breath, but when she finally did. The redhead screeched out, "YES!" Elsa hurriedly slipped the ring onto Anna's scarred hand, marveling at how right it looked resting on Anna's ring finger, before rising back onto her feet. On her ascension to a standing position Anna tackled her, slamming their lips together in a searing kiss. Elsa relished the taste of her new fiancé, before the thought of the future to come caused an ear-to-ear grin to bloom across her face, matching the one already plastered across Anna's. The audience began cheering for the two women on stage.

As if on cue some of the musicians behind them began a gentle waltz for the newlyweds. Elsa brought her arms down to rest on Anna's hips. Anna lifted her own arms to wrap around the blonde's neck. Elsa gave a light chuckle as a notion crossed her mind; Anna gave her a curious look.

_Everything started on that day Anna caught me dancing in school, how fitting that the start of the rest of our lives together begins with us dancing __**together**_.

Anna's puzzled look persisted until Elsa leaned forward to capture her lips. The taste and warmth of the kiss was something both girls would have an eternity to savor and enjoy.

* * *

**End of Pink Mist**


End file.
